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WOMANHOOD. 

FIVE  SERMONS 

TO 

YOUNG  WOMEN 


PREACHED  AT  THE  SIXTH  PRESBYTERIAN 
CHURCH,  CHICAGO. 


BY  THE 

Eev.  J.'  H.  WOECESTER,  Jr. 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION, 

1334  CHESTNUT  STREET. 


I- 


* 


■J 


i 

t 


na 

LaJ  ^ 4(J) 


TO  MY  MOTHER, 

IN  WHOM  I FIRST  LEARNED  TO  KNOW  AND  REVERE 

True  Womanhood, 

AND  BY  WHOSE  TRAINING  AND  INFLUENCE  SO  MANY  TRUE 
WOJtEN  HAVE  BEEN  MADE, 

THESE 

WOEDS  TO  YOUNG  WOMEN 

ARE 


GRATEFULLY  DEDICATED 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/womanhood01worc 


CONTENTS 


I. 

PAGE 

IDEAL  WOMANHOOD 7 


purpose’.  . . . 

II. 

OCCUPATION  ■ 

III. 

47 

ADORNMENT  . 

IV. 

71 

INFLUENCE  . . 

V. 

5 


I. 


IDEAL  WOMANHOOD. 


“And  the  Lord  God  said,  It  is  not  good  that  the  man 
should  be  alone  ; I will  make  him  an  help  meet  for 
him.”— Gen.  ii.  18. 

TT  is  an  undertaking  of  some  delicacy  for  a Cliris- 
-*■  tiau  minister  to  enter  upon  a course  of  sermons 
to  young  women  such  as  that  which  I have  proposed 
to  myself,  because  of  two  things  : First,  because  of 
the  prevalence  of  a kind  of  false  gallantry  which 
demands  that  whenever  men  speak  of  women  they 
should  use  the  language  of  extravagant  and  fulsome 
adoration,  on  pain  of  being  condemned  as  lacking 
in  chivalry — although,  in  truth,  this  obtrusive  gal- 
lantry is  little  to  the  credit  of  either  sex,  suggest- 
ing, as  it  infallibly  does,  an  uneasy  suspicion  of 
injustice  on  the  one  side  or  inferiority  on  the  other 
which  this  somewhat  too  violent  protestation  is 
needed  to  cover  up ; and  secondly,  because  of  an 

7 


8 


WOMANHOOD. 


extreme  sensitiveness  on  the  subject  of  woman’s 
place  and  work,  arising  from  the  recent  agitation 
of  the  question  of  “ woman’s  rights,”  which  has 
led  many  women  to  look  upon  men  as  their  nat- 
ural enemies  and  hereditary  oppressors,  and  to  lis- 
ten to  any  ntterance  from  mascnline  lips  respecting 
their  position  and  duties  with  a mingling  of  curios- 
ity and  distrust  most  unfavorable  both  to  frankness 
of  utterance  and  to  candor  of  reception. 

Nevertheless,  God’s  word  has  a message  to  wo- 
man as  well  as  to  man,  and  he  whose  commission 
it  is  to  “preach  the  word”  may  not  justly  suppress 
it.  To  seek  by  silence  to  avoid  misconstruction  or 
unfriendly  judgment,  or  to  court  applause  by  bring- 
ing into  the  pulpit  the  polished,  half-sincere  com- 
pliment of  the  drawing-room,  were  alike  unworthy 
of  a minister  of  Jesus  Christ. 

This  age  has  its  peculiar  dangers ; city  life,  its 
peculiar  temptations  for  young  women.  In  the 
spirit  of  Christian  earnestness,  therefore — a spirit 
as  far  removed  from  sickly  sentimentalism  on  the 
one  hand  as  from  arrogant  controversialism  on  the 
other — I desire  to  speak  to  you  of  Christian  Wo- 
manhood, its  responsibilities  and  the  preparation 
for  meeting  them,  in  the  hope  that  I may  be  guid- 


IDEAL  WOMANHOOD. 


9 


ed  to  say  something  which  will  help  the  young 
women  whom  I address  to  recognize  more  clearly 
and  prepare  more  thoughtfully  for  the  great  work 
for  their  generation  which  they  alone  can  do;  to  dis- 
cern among  the  many  flattering  and  beguiling  voices 
which  now,  as  of  old,  are  proclaiming  in  their  ear, 
‘‘Ye  shall  be  as  gods,”  the  voice  of  their  true 
Leader,  Pattern  and  Champion,  and  to  follow  him. 

That  there  should  be  occasion  on  the  very  thresh- 
old to  pause  and  ask  ourselves,  “ What  is  the  ideal 
womanhood?”  is  itself  siguiflcant.  It  points  to 
the  unsettlemeut  of  thought  in  our  clay  concern- 
ing woman’s  place  in  the  world.  If  we  raise  this 
question,  it  is  because  society  has  raised  it — be- 
cause women  themselves  have  raised  it.  There  is 
a mighty  revolt  in  our  day,  connected  wn’th  the 
general  upheaval  of  the  older  order  of  things, 
against  the  traditionary  lot  of  woman — an  efibrt 
to  better  her  condition  not  simply  by  ameliorating 
certain  hardships  and  correcting  certain  abuses, 
but  by  claiming  for  her  an  entirely  new  sphere  and 
setting  before  her  a new  standard  of  womanhood. 
This  revolt  is  largely  led  by  avowed  unbelievers^ 
to  whom  the  Scriptures  speak  with  no  final  and 


10 


WOMANHOOD. 


divine  authority,  and  who  do  not  hesitate  to  make 
even  those  relations  which  God  has  hallowed  with 
the  most  solemn  sanctions — marriage  and  parent- 
hood— the  subject  of  rash  theorizing  and  bold 
experiment. 

Into  these  fathomless  bogs  of  unrestrained  specula- 
tion God  forbid  that  I should  lead,  or  that  the  young 
women  to  whom  I speak  should  follow.  The  one 
question  for  you  is.  What  did  God  intend  me  to  be 
and  to  do?  What  you  shall  becorne  will  depend  not 
only  upon  the  ideal  you  set  before  yourselves,  but 
upon  the  agreement  or  disagreement  of  the  ideal 
with  the  Creator’s  design.  She  who  seeks  to  make 
herself  what  God  meant  her  to  be  has  the  sure 
promise  of  success ; she  who  seeks  to  make  herself 
something  else  than  God  meant  her  to  be  is  fore- 
doomed to  fail  in  reaching  the  goal,  and  to  become 
dwarfed  and  deformed  in  the  attempt. 

Let  me  ask  you,  then,  to  seek  in  all  prayerfulness 
an  answer  to  this  one  question  : What  is  God’s  ideal 
of  womanhood  ? And  that  you  may  find  it  take  in 
your  hand  this  clue,  which  he  oflPei's  you  by  his  Spir- 
it of  inspiration : “ And  the  Lord  God  said.  It  is 
not  good  that  the  man  should  be  alone : I will  make 
him  an  help  meet  for  him,”  or,  as  it  is  in  the  He- 


WliAL  WOMANHOOD. 


11 


brew,  “over  against  him,”  “ ausweriug-  to  him.” 
I am  not  of  those  who  would  consign  this  old 
story  to  the  limbo  of  nursery-tales.  W hatever  of 
mystery  or  allegory  there  may  be  interwoven  here, 
whatever  of  deeper  meaning  underlies  the  pictorial 
dress,  in  these  words  speaks  that  eternal  wisdom 
which  was  with  the  Lord  “ from  everlasting,  from 
the  beginning,  or  ever  the  earth  was  and  they 
contain  the  original,  inalienable  charter  of  woman’s 
rights  and  woman’s  liberties,  and  of  those  two 
priceless  legacies  from  Paradise — marriage  and 
home. 

Now  see  first  of  all  in  these  words  a plain  inti- 
mation that  woman  was  not  made  to  be  a duplicate 
of  man,  but  his  complement.  She  was  made  to 
supply  his  defects,  to  balance  the  one-sidedness  of 
his  nature,  and  with  him  to  constitute  a more  com- 
plete harmony  and  to  realize  a more  perfect  order 
than  would  be  possible  for  either  alone. 

Ideal  womanhood,  then,  is  not  a pale  copy  of 
manhood  with  some  of  the  stronger  and  coarser 
lines  left  out : it  is  something  distinct  and  peculiar 
— a new  thought  of  God  whose  very  preciousness 
lies  in  its  distinctness. 

It  is  the  fatal  weakness  of  most  of  the  “ad- 


12 


WOMANHOOD. 


vanced  ” movements  on  behalf  of  woman  that 
they  are  a struggle  toward  the  complete  assimila- 
tion of  woman  to  man.  Under  the  plea  of  equali- 
ty they  really  aim  at  identification  of  the  two  sexes 
in  pursuits,  and  therefore  in  characteristics  and 
capacities.  Though  it  is  acknowledged  that  physi- 
cally the  sexes  are  separated  by  an  impassable  gulf, 
it  seems  to  be  taken  for  granted  that  all  distinctive 
mental  and  spiritual  characteristics  are  results  of 
training  which  can  speedily  be  made  to  disaijpear 
under  the  influence  of  new  ideals  and  a new  educa- 
tion. Such  an  assumption  does  violence  to  reason, 
which  naturally  looks  for  a correspondence  between 
the  outward  and  the  inward  and  expects  that  un- 
like bodies  will  be  found  to  enshrine  unlike  souls. 
It  is  dishonoring  to  the  Creator ; for  if  man  and 
woman  are  spiritually  alike,  then  one  or  the  other 
has  been  imprisoned  in  a fleshy  tabernacle  unsuited 
to  the  spirit  that  inhabits  it.  The  true  relation  of 
the  sexes  is,  indeed,  completely  destroyed  by  this 
assimilation.  It  is  in  their  unlikeness  that  their 
power  over  each  other  lies,  and  against  every  at- 
tempt to  destroy  or  diminish  that  uulikeuess  the 
instinct  of  either  sex  will  for  ever  interpose  an  in- 
surmountable barrier,  making  every  manly  man 


IDEAL  WOMANHOOD. 


13 


recoil  from  a masculine  woman  with  a repulsion 
equaled  only  by  that  with  which  a true  woman 
recoils  from  an  effeminate  man. 

The  only  true  woman’s  rights  agitation  is  that 
which  seeks  to  remove  from  her  path  whatever  in 
the  usages  or  institutions  of  society  hinders  her 
from  seeking  the  highest  development  of  her 

i 

womanhood,  not  that  which  would  clear  a path  for 
her  to  compete  for  the  excellences  and  achievements 
of  manhood. 

In  this  entire  distinctness  of  manliood  and 
womanhood,  if  once  we  could  clearly  and  joyfully 
recognize  it,  lies  the  end  of  controversy  over  tlie 
old  question  of  the  equality  of  the  sexes.  How 
will  you  measure  against  each  other  things  so 
unlike?  Which  is  superior  depends  on  the  quality 
taken  for  the  criterion.  Physically,  if  strength  be 
the  criterion,  man  is  the  superior ; if  grace  and 
beauty,  woman.  Mentally,  if  comprehensiveness 
and  logical  power  be  the  criterion,  man  is  the  su- 
perior ; if  alertness  and  flexibility,  woman.  Mor- 
ally, man  is  the  superior  in  truth  and  even-handed 
justice;  woman,  in  mercy  and  in  purity.  The 
broadsword  of  Coeur  de  Lion  or  Saladin’s  scimitar 
— which  is  the  better  weapon  ? Mr.  Ruskin  sums 


14 


WOMANHOOD. 


up  the  case  well  when  he  says,  “ We  are  foolish, 
aud  without  excuse  foolish,  iu  speaking  of  the 
superiority  of  one  sex  to  the  other,  as  if  they  could 
be  compared  in  similar  things.  Each  is  what  the 
other  is  not;  . . . each  completes  the  other  and  is 
completed  by  the  other ; and  the  happiness  and 
perfection  of  both  depends  on  each  asking  and 
receiving  of  the  other  what  the  other  only  can 
give.” 

Have  you  ever  considered  what  is  implied  iu 
that  other  word  in  this  same  stoiy  of  the  creation  : 
“ So  God  created  man  iu  his  own  image ; in  the 
image  of  God  created  he  him ; male  and  female 
created  he  them”  ? Not  in  man  alone  is  the  Crea- 
tor’s image  to  be  found,  but  in  humanity,  with  its 
two  poles  of  manhood  and  womanhood.  Each 
was  made  to  reflect  God’s  image,  but  from  diflerent 
angles.  Like  the  two  pictures  of  the  stereoscope, 
they  must  blend  together  that  the  image  of  God  in 
its  full-rounded  completeness  may  be  seen. 

But,  following  this  clue  still  farther,  we  see, 
again,  that  woman’s  work  is  distinctly  a work  of 
helpfulness.  The  very  idea  expressed  iu  her  crea- 
tion is  that  of  companionship.  She  was  made  to 
take  her  place  by  the  side  of  another  aud  to  share 


WEAL  WOMANHOOD. 


15 


his  Avork.  The  iudividual  life  began  with  man  ; 
society  and  the  home  came  into  being  with  the 
creation  of  woman  ; and  from  that  day  to  this  the 
existence  of  either,  in  any  true  ideal  sense,  has  de- 
pended on  her.  The  home  first,  and  then  that 
arger  sphere  of  intercourse  and  fellowship  of  which 
home  is  the  germ  and  the  model,  is  woman’s  crea- 
tion, and  therefore  most  truly  her  sphere. 

“ Ah  yes  !”  you  will  say  ; ‘‘  the  old  story  again  ! 
Marriage  first,  last  and  always — the  one  hope,  the 
one  opportunity,  the  one  destiny,  of  every  daughter 
of  Eve.  Ijet  her  miss  that,  as  scores  and  hundreds 
cannot  choose  but  miss  it,  and  her  life  is  a failure.” 
No,  young  women ; I have  said  no  such  thing. 
The  clue  we  are  following  leads  to  no  such  conclu- 
sion. I do  say  that  marriage  is  God’s  holiest  ordi- 
nance. I do  say  that  the  family  is  earth’s  best 
picture  of  heaven.  I do  say  that  wifehood  and 
motherhood  are  the  ideal  state  of  Avoman,  just  as 
marriage  and  fatherhood  are  the  ideal  state  of  man. 
And  this  further  thing  is  also  true — that  there  is 
that  in  wifehood  and  motherhood  to  fill  the  hands 
upon  which  these  responsibilities  are  laid,  to  con- 
stitute a vocation  by  themselves,  and  to  shut  the 
door  upon  an  outside  career,  as  the  responsibilities 


16 


WOMANHOOD. 


of  the  husband  and  father  do  not,  and  were  not 
meant  to,  do.  But  it  is  not  true  that,  because 
woman’s  work  is  helpfulness  and  her  sphere  pre- 
eminently the  home,  therefore  marriage  is  her  one 
goal  and  life  without  it  a failure.  Is  there  no 
place  and  work  in  the  home  for  a sister,  for  a 
daughter,  as  well  as  for  a wife  and  mother  ? And 
in  that  wider  whole  which  we  call  society  are  there 
not  sisterly  as  well  as  wifely  duties  waiting  for  her 
gentle  and  skillful  hand?  The  need  of  womanly 
helpfulness  in  the  world’s  work  is  great  and  jnani- 
fold,  and  it  is  a need  which  woman  only  can  supply. 
Married  or  single,  as  wife  or  mothei’,  as  sister  or 
friend,  hers  is  a share  in  that  work  distinct  and  pe- 
culiar— a share  which  man  cannot  take,  and  which, 
if  she  leave  it  to  undertake  man’s  work,  must 
remain  nndone.  It  is  hers  to  inspii’e,  to  purify,  to 
elevate,  to  ameliorate,  to  comfort,  to  adorn. 

A narrow  sphere,  .say  you?  What  great  work 
of  the  world  has  ever  jirospered  without  her  help  ? 
What  did  not  the  Reformation  owe  to  the  serene 
self-poise,  the  clear  womanly  insight,  the  cheerful, 
steadfast  faith,  of  Catherine  von  Bora,  by  which 
Luther’s  fitful  humors  were  controlled  and  his 
moody  despondencies  put  to  flight?  Wliat  does 


IDEAL  WOMANHOOD. 


17 


not  American  independence  owe  to  the  cheerful 
endurance,  the  heroic  courage,  the  steadfast  reso- 
lution, of  the  women  of  the  Revolution?  What 
have  not  missions  owed  to  the  inspiring  influence 
of  such  women  as  Mary  Lyon  and  the  quiet,  gen- 
tle, thoroughly  womanly  but  fruitful  work  of  such 
laborers  as  Fidelia  Fiske?  Think  you  the  plant- 
ing of  Christianity  would  have  gone  on  with  the 
same  marvelous  swiftness  and  success  without  that 
presence  and  helpfulness  of  women  which  the  Epis- 
tles so  often  recognize?  Was  Paul  conscious  of  no 
debt  to  Phoebe,  who  had  been  a succorer  of  many, 
and  of  himself  also?  to  Priscilla,  who,  besides  her 
service  in  training  the  eloquent  Apollos,  had  for 
Paul’s  sake  laid  down,  as  it  were,  her  own  neck? 
and  to  that  Roman  matron,  the  mother  of  Rufus, 
who  had  been  to  him  as  his  own?  Nay,  did  not 
the  blessed  Master  himself,  notwithstanding  his 
lonely  grandeur  and  his  infinite  sufficiency  for  the 
work  he  came  to  do,  receive  from  those  women  who 
followed  him  and  ministered  to  him,  and  from  those 
sisters  in  the  home  at  Bethany,  a comfort  and  cheer 
which  no  disciple  of  the  other  sex — not  even  the  be- 
loved John — could  have  given?  And  what  shall  I 

say — or,  rather,  what  shall  T not  say — of  woman’s 
2 


18 


WOMANHOOD. 


ministries  at  the  bedside  of  the  sick  and  dying, 
in  the  homes  of  wretchedness  and  want ; of  the 
charm  of  her  presence  in  hospital  and  prison ; of  a 
Florence  Nightingale  hovering  like  an  angel  of 
mercy  in  the  track  of  the  demon  of  carnage ; of  an 
Elizabeth  F ry  entering  like  a messenger  from  Heav- 
en the  foul,  the  morally-polluted,  atmosphere  of 
English  convict  cells  ? What  of  woman’s  refining 
and  purifying  influence,  by  which  the  grosser  pas- 
sions of  men  are  for  ever  shamed  and  restrained, 
and  all  that  is  gentlest  and  noblest  in  them  called 
forth  and  strengthened? 

A narrow  sphere?  Well,  be  it  so,  but  it  is  one 
which  you  hold  alone.  In  it  you  may  wield  a more 
than  imperial  power;  and  when  you  leave  it  to 
strive  for  other  masteries  and  to  grasp  at  other 
sceptres,  you  will  leave  it  empty,  and  in  its  empti- 
ness will  be  written  the  ruin  of  home,  the  desola- 
tion of  society  and  the  degi’adatiou  of  manhood. 

Yet  better  even  such  a perverted  ambition  than 
that  weak,  degraded,  wretched  conception  of  wo- 
manhood which,  alas  ! is  shaping  the  thought  and 
life  of  too  many  young  women  to-day — the  concep- 
tion which  makes  womanhood  to  consist,  not  in 
helpfulness,  but  in  helplessness.  Alas  for  the  young 


IDEAL  WOMANHOOD. 


19 


woman  who  has  no  truer  idea  of  her  Maker's  de- 
sign than  to  suppose  that  he  made  her  to  be  borne 
through  life  like  a helpless  babe  in  the  supporting 
arms  of  others,  whose  only  reward  shall  be  dimpled 
smiles  and  pretty  coaxing  ways  ! When  God  said, 
“ It  is  not  good  that  the  man  should  be  alone : I 
will  make  him  an  help  meet  for  him,”  he  did  not 
mean,  “ I will  make  him  a doll  to  play  with.” 
And  yet — charge  it  not  upon  men ; say  not  that 
this  is  what  they  seek : in  Mohammedan  harems  it 
may  be,  but  ijot  in  this  republic  of  Christian  homes 
— and  yet  this  is  all  that  many  a woman  is.  It  is 
all  that  some  of  the  young  women  of  to-day  will 
ever  become,  unless  they  rouse  themselves  to  higher 
purpose,  more  serious  endeavor  and  more  thorough 
self-discipline. 

The  Chinese  lady  glories  in  her  small  feet  as  a 
badge  of  helplessness — as  a proof,  in  other  words, 
of  her  exemption  from  the  necessity  of  labor.  And 
there  is  even  here  an  ideal  of  fine-ladyhood  which 
glories  in  hands  that  tell  the  same  story.  How  dif- 
ferent from  both  these  is  tlie  picture  of  the  true 
woman  drawn  by  the  pen  of  inspiration!  “She 
worketh  willingly  with  her  hands ; ” “ She  girdeth 
her  loins  with  strength  and  strengtheneth  her  arms.” 


20 


WOMANHOOD. 


The  very  question  Avith  which  that  exquisite  por- 
trait is  introduced,  “ Who  can  find  a capable  wo- 
man?”— for  so  the  lexicographers  bid  us  read  it 
— suggests  an  ideal  of  womanhood  as  far  remoA^ed 
as  possible  from  helpless  dependence. 

Not  to  be  a drag,  but  a spur;  uot  to  be  a burden, 
but  an  ally  ; not  to  be  a mere  guest  iu  this  world,  to 
be  waited  on  and  admired,  but  to  be  a braA’e,  true 
worker  iu  this  mass  of  toiling,  struggling,  suifer- 
ing  souls, — that,  young  Avoman,  is  God’s  call  to  you. 

Nor  yet  is  the  helpfulness  for  which  God  made 
Avoman  the  helpfulness  of  a mere  drudge,  to  go  aud 
come  at  man’s  bidding,  to  cook  his  food,  to  nurse 
his  children,  to  spend  life  like  the  Hindoo  Avoman 
in  the  performance  of  menial  offices  behind  a screen, 
Avhile  society,  in  its  proper  sense,  is  left  to  man 
alone.  This  may  be  helpfulness,  but  it  is  not  com- 
panionship. It  is  helpfulness  of  a meagre,  narroAv 
sort — a helpfulness  Avhich  may  soothe,  Avhich  may 
solace,  but  Avhich  cannot  elcAmte,  cannot  inspire. 
God  meant  Avoman  for  a highei’,  broader  Avork  than 
that,  and  the  ideal  AVoman  is  one  Avho,  not  despising 
practical  efficiency  aud  simple  homely  ministries, 
knows  how  at  the  same  time  to  make  herself  lelt, 
wherever  she  niOA^es,  as  friend,  as  counselor,  as  in- 


IDEAL  WOMANHOOD. 


21 


spiriug  soul.  How  different  a being  is  this  from  the 
strange  compound  of  wbims  and  prejudices,  of  artful 
wiles  and  affected  graces,  of  useless  hands  and  empty 
head,  of  inane  speech  and  frivolous  behavior,  of 
worldliness  and  vanity,  known  in  some  circles  as 
the  society  woman  ! Alas  for  the  man  to  whom 
the  word  “ woman  ” stands  only  for  this  ! But 
rich  the  man  above  the  possessor  of  the  Kohinoor 
who  in  his  inmost  heart  cherishes  the  image  of  a 
true  woman — wise  in  counsel,  sagacious  in  insight, 
prudent  in  administration,  gentle  in  rebuke,  dis- 
creet -in  praise,  wonderful  in  comfort,  untiring  in 
industry,  unwearied  in  patience,  undaunted  in  cour- 
age, unfailing  in  love. 

And  what  is  the  power  by  which  you  are  to  ful- 
fill this  mission  of  helpfulness,  and  are  to  hold 
without  a rival  the  sphere  which  God  has  given 
you  as  your  own  ? It  is  the  power  of  those  dis- 
tinctively womanly  traits  which  till  the  advent  of 
Christianity  Avere  always  despised — or,  at  least, 
under-rated — but  which  in  the  gospel  have  been 
exalted  to  the  very  first  rank  among  moral  forces  : 
to  wit,  the  power  of  gentleness,  of  kindness,  of 
endurance,  of  self-sacrifice.  In  these  is  the  invin- 


22 


WOMANHOOD. 


cible  might  of  womanhood.  It  is  hers  to  win  less 
by  argument  than  by  persuasion ; to  subdue,  not 
by  severity,  but  by  kindness ; to  reign,  not  by 
force,  but  by  love.  And  by  as  much  as  the  gospel 
of  Christ  has  revealed  that  these  are  the  forces  by 
which  the  world  is  to  be  won,  by  so  much  has  it 
exalted  woman  to  a dignity  and  crowned  her  with 
a glory  which  were  never  hers  before. 

The  ideal  woznan  is  gentle  as  the  dove,  modest 
as  the  lily  of  the  valley,  yet  there  is  no  weakness 
in  that  gentleness,  no  cowardice  in  that  modesty. 
The  ideal  woman  is  as  far  removed  from  flabbiness 
of  chai’acter  as  she  is  from  helpless  inefficiency.  It 
was  no  “ reed  shaken  with  the  wind  ” which  the 
poet  painted  when,  his  eye  resting  fondly  on  the 
wife  in  whom  his  heart  safely  trusted,  he  drew  this 
exquisite  portrait  of  a true  woman  : 

“ A being  breathing  thoughtful  breath ; 

A traveler  between  life  and  death — 

The  reason  firm,  the  temperate  will, 

Endurance,  forethought,  strength  and  skUl; 

A perfect  woman,  nobly  planned 
To  warn,  to  comfort  and  command. 

And  yet  a spirit  still,  and  bright 
With  something  of  an  angel-light.” 

Peter  breathed,  indeed,  the  very  essence  of  Chris- 


IDEAL  WOMANHOOD. 


23 


tian  courtesy  when  he  bade  meu  give  “ honor  unto 
the  woman  as  unto  the  weaker  vessel,”  but  it  was 
physical,  not  moral,  weakness  of  which  he  spoke. 
Yes,  weak  she  may  be  of  arm  to  wield  the  sword, 
but  not  weak  of  spirit  to  bear  the  cross.  In 
patient  endurance  the  restless  spirit  of  man  is 
weakness  itself  by  the  side  of  her  steadfast,  un- 
complaining strength.  “ There  are  more  heroines 
than  heroes  in  the  world  ” it  has  been  said  ; and 
if  silently  to  suffer  be  a truer  heroism  than  grand- 
ly to  die,  who  shall  gainsay  the  sentiment? 

“Warriors  and  statesmen  have  their  meed  of  praise, 

And  what  they  do  or  suffer  men  record, 

But  the  long  sacrifice  of  -woman’s  days 
Passes  without  a thought,  without  a word. 
****** 

But  it  may  be  more  lofty  courage  dwells 

In  one  meek  heart  which  bears  an  adverse  fate 
Than  his  whose  ardent  soul  indignant  swells. 

Warmed  by  the  fight  or  cheered  through  high  debate. 
The  soldier  dies  surrounded : could  he  live 
Alone  to  suffer  and  alone  to  strive?” 

Great  was  the  heroism  of  many  a Christian 
youth  who  in  the  days  of  Roman  persecution 
walked  cheerfully  to  the  arena  to  give  his  body 
to  the  wild  beasts  for  food,  but  greater  still  was 


24 


WOMANHOOD. 


the  heroism  of  such  mothers  as  the  mother  of 
Symphorion,  who,  when  her  son  was  led  forth  to 
martyrdom,  followed  by  the  curious  rabble,  took 
her  stand  upon  the  walls  that  she  might  see  him 
pass,  and  at  the  risk  of  being  herself  arrested  and 
put  to  death  as  a Christian  cried  out  as  he  went 
by,  “ My  son,  my  son  Symphorion  ! remember  the 
living  God,  and  be  of  good  cheer.  Raise  thy  heart 
to  heaven  and  think  of  Him  who  reigneth  there. 
Fear  not  death  which  leads  to  certain  life.”  "N^'e 
speak  of  the  sacrifices  on  the  battle-field  by  which 
our  country  was  saved  from  dismemberment  and 
purged  from  its  stain  of  slavery,  but  there  were 
other  sacrifices  harder  than  these  without  which 
that  rescue  and  redemption  could  not  have  been 
achieved — the  sacrifices  of  the  wives  who  watched 
with  sad  eyes  day  after  day  for  a form  that  never 
returned,  of  the  gray-haired  mothers  the  staff  of 
whose  right  hand  was  broken  in  twain  and  who 
sat  in  their  old  age  by  a desolate  hearth. 

Do  you  ask,  young  women,  whether  the  ideal 
woman  must,  then,  be  a heroine?  I answer.  The 
ideal  woman  has  that  in  her  out  of  which  the 
heroine  is  made  by  the  occasion.  That  power 
of  endurance,  that  steadfastness  of  devotion,  that 


IDEA  L WOMANHO  0 D. 


25 


capacity  of  self-surreuder,  which  when  the  demand 
comes  reveal  themselves  in  heroic  lives  are  latent 
in  all  true  womanhood. 

It  remains  only  to  answer  this  question  : Where 
will  you  find  the  pattern  of  such  womanhood  as 
this?  The  Romanist  will  point  you  to  the  virgin 
mother.  Yet  almost  as  if  in  anticipation  of  this, 
and  to  guard  against  it,  the  virgin  mother  is  kept 
strangely  in  the  background  of  the  gospel  story. 
The  outline  of  her  character  is  too  faint  and  frag- 
mentary, if  nothing  else,  to  furnish  woman  that  ideal 
standard  which  she  needs.  I point  you  rather  to  that 
one  unapproachable  ideal  of  all  human  excellence 
which  was  realized  in  Jesus  Christ — the  pattern 
of  true  womanhood,  as  he  is  of  true  manhood. 
For,  since  he  was  a perfect  manifestation  of  God, 
in  whose  image  both  man  and  woman  were  created, 
we  find  in  him  a perfect  blending  of  manly  and 
womanly  excellence.  hlever,  indeed,  were  there 
a manlier  strength  and  aggressiveness,  a greater 
power  of  leadership,  a more  vigorous  scorn,  a more 
inflexible  sternness  in  rebuke,  a more  majestic  as- 
sertion of  authority,  than  in  the  Lion  of  the  tribe 
of  Judali,  yet  never  were  there  a more  delicate 


26 


WOMANHOOD. 


purity,  a tenderer  compassion,  a deeper  love,  a 
more  unwearied  patience,  an  ampler  forgiveness, 
a more  absolute  self-sacrifice,  in  the  heart  of  wo- 
man than  in  the  Lamb  of  God  that  took  away  the 
sin  of  the  world.  Would  you  attain  the  ideal 
womanhood?  Go  sit  with  Mary  of  Bethauy  at 
his  feet,  and  you  shall  learn  it  thei’e.  There  only 
can  you  attain  an  ideal  womanhood,  for  faith  is 
the  crowning  grace  of  womanly  character.  Woman- 
hood without  piety  is  a cathedral  without  its  dome. 
“ Favor  is  deceitful  and  beauty  is  vain  ; but  a wo- 
man that  feareth  the  Lord,  she  shall  be  praised.” 

Moreover,  if  the  pattern  is  in  Christ,  the  power 
is  in  Christ  also.  In  union  with  him  is  the  secret 
of  perfect  womanhood,  as  of  perfect  manhood. 
Many  a woman  has  found  in  the  love  of  a strong 
man  her  first  awakening  from  frivolity,  her  first 
efiFectual  impulse  toAvard  a true  and  noble  woman- 
hood. But  infinitely  stronger  in  its  uplifting,  en- 
nobling power  is  the  loA-e  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Let  that  love  take  full  possession  of  your  heart,  and 
under  its  inspiration  you  Avill  grow  in  purity,  in 
unselfishness,  in  strength  and  depth  of  character, 
till  you  come  at  last  “ to  a perfect  ” Avoman — “ to 
the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ.” 


II. 


PURPOSE. 


‘‘But  she  that  liveth  in  pleasure  is  dead  while  she 
1 i veth . ’ ’ — 1 Tim.  v.  6. 

‘‘ ll/r E ASURED  by  this  rule/’  exclaims  Er. 

Dix,  “ what  a graveyard  is  society  ! How 
many,  how  heaped  together,  are  its  dead  !”  And 
truly,  if  a life  of  aimless  self-indulgence,  of  friv- 
olous pleasui’e-seeking,  be,  as  it  is  here  presented,  a 
living  death,  then  indeed  there  are  animated  corpses 
on  every  hand — in  our  streets,  in  our  stores,  at  our 
firesides — while  a ballroom  is  a veritable  charnel- 
house  in  which  the  dead,  by  the  magic  of  sweet 
sounds,  are  whirled  hither  and  thither  like  with- 
ered leaves  in  an  autumn  wind. 

Were  we  to  visit  the  crypt  of  some  old  cathedral 
at  midnight,  and  under  the  power  of  some  weird 
spell,  such  as  the  superstition  of  former  ages  used 
to  dream  of,  to  behold  its  coffined  dead  rise  from 

27 


28 


WOMANHOOD. 


their  couches  of  stone  to  tread  those  aisles  for  one 
uncanny  hour  and  make  those  gloomy  vaults  echo 
with  their  unearthly  laughter,  we  should  recoil  with 
horror  from  the  ghastly  scene  and  rush,  shuddering, 
back  to  the  actual  life  of  the  warm  fireside  and  the 
busy  street.  Witli  much  the  same  horror  did  the 
servant  and  apostle  of  Jesus  Christ,  Avho  could  see 
beneath  the  painted  surface  of  things,  and  who  knew 
through  fellowship  with  Christ  what  true  life  is — 
what  true  manhood  and  true  womanhood  are — re- 
coil from  the  ghastliness  of  the  gay  scenes  of  the 
city  of  Diana.  With  the  .same  shudderiug  must 
the  angels  of  God  turn  from  many  a scene  of  mirth 
and  festivity,  in  our  modern  cities,  to  the  true  life 
of  the  heavenly  home. 

These  living  dead  are  not  all  of  one  sex.  There 
is  many  a young  man  as  completely  given  over  to 
purposeless  pleasure-seeking  as  any  young  Avoman, 
with  this  difference — that  his  pleasures  in  that  case 
are  apt  to  be  coarser,  less  negatiA'ely  harmless,  than 
hers.  But  in  the  Epistle  referred  to  the  apostle  was 
Avriting  of  young  women.  I am  speaking  at  this 
time  to  young  women.  And  therefore  it  is  to  the 
type  of  feminine  character  here  drawn  that  I shall 
confine  myself. 


PURPOSE. 


29 


“ She  that  liveth  in  pleasure.”  The  charactei' 
here  described  is  not  necessarily  that  of  the  shame- 
less wanton.  The  pleasure  here  spoken  of  need 
not  be  in  itself  guilty  pleasure  : it  may  be  perfectly 
innocent,  perfectly  harmless,  in  tlie  right  measure 
and  at  the  right  time.  The  thing  here  assumed  is 
that  it  has  become  the  atmosphere  of  existence — the 
aliment  on  which  the  soul  attempts  to  live.  The 
woman  whom  these  words  describe  is  a woman  des- 
titute of  serious  purpose — a being  who  lives  to  dress, 
to  dance,  to  coquet,  to  idle  away  hours  over  the 
trashiest  of  sentimental  fiction  and  other  hours  in 
the  silliest  of  frivolous  talk ; a being  with  no  am- 
bition higher  than  to  see  and  be  seen,  without  a 
conception  of  life  more  real  or  more  substantial 
than  a soap-bubble. 

Now,  observe,  it  is  not  mirth,  it  is  not  buoyancy 
of  spirits,  that  is  here  in  question.  There  is  not  on 
earth  a more  airy,  light-hearted,  elfervescent  creat- 
ure, a brighter  “phantom  of  delight,”  than  a young 
girl  as  God  made  her.  God  forbid  that  one  ray  of 
that  brightness  should  be  “quenched,  one  bounding 
pulse  of  that  light  heart  checked  ! There  is  sorrow 
enough  in  the  world  as  it  is,  and  it  needs  all  the 
mirthfuluess  of  young  maidejihood  to  brighten  it. 


30 


WOMANHOOD. 


But  light-liearteduess  is  one  thing,  frivolity  is  an- 
other. The  one  is  the  elasticity  of  the  willow  which 
bends  and  rises  in  the  gale,  yet  all  the  while  keeps 
its  root  fast  in  the  ground  and  shoots  its  branches 
higher  and  higher  toward  the  sky ; the  other  is  the 
dance  of  the  fallen  leaf  in  the  wind,  whirled  round 
and  round,  chased  hither  and  thither,  with  no  fast 
hold  upon  anything,  no  purpose  to  fulfill,  falling  at 
last  upon  the  river  to  be  borne  out  of  sight.  This 
blight  of  frivolity  it  is  which  is  seizing  upon  thou- 
sands of  bright  young  girls  with  their  possibilities 
of  noble  womanhood,  with  their  pure  asjjiratious 
after  a high,  unselfish  life,  and  turning  their  exist- 
ence into  the  dreary  mockery  of  a living  death. 
Indeed,  frivolity  occupies  much  the  same  relative 
place  among  the  temptations  of  young  women  that 
dissipation  does  among  those  of  young  men.  1 
need  appeal  to  no  further  proof  of  this  than  the 
characteristic  drift  of  the  conversation  of  either  sex 
when  left  wholly  to  itself.  With  men  the  drift  is 
toward  coarseness  and  irreverence ; with  women, 
toward  frivolity  and  personality. 

The  reason  of  this  lies  partly  in  woman’s  nature 
and  partly  in  her  surroundings.  There  is  in  her 
nature  a fondness  for  trifling  details,  an  intori'st  in 


PURPOSE. 


31 


small  things,  which  qualities  pre-eminently  fit  her  for 
the  work  of  beautifying  and  adorning,  for  the  admin- 
istration of  the  household  and  for  the  sacred  respon- 
sibilities of  motherhood.  It  is  this  vivid  interest  in 
details  which  makes  women  as  a rule  so  much  spright- 
lier  and  more  entertaining  as  letter-writers  than  men. 
But  just  because  of  this  capacity  for  interest  in 
trifles  there  is  danger  that  trifles  may  absorb  the 
life.  But  the  temptation  to  frivolity  lies  in  part 
in  the  young  woman’s  surroundings.  As  a rule, 
she  is  not  dependent — at  least,  during  her  young 
maidenhood — upon  her  own  exertions.  Ho  definite 
thought  of  a serious  life-work  is  forced  upon  her 
as  it  is  upon  the  young  man.  It  is  true  she  has 
her  studies  while  at  school ; and  if  she  have  any 
intellectual  tastes,  these  are  a great  safeguard  against 
frivolity.  Yet  even  these  are  looked  upon  as  some- 
thing to  be  soon  put  aside.  They  are  not,  like  the 
professional  studies  of  the  lawyer  or  the  medical 
student,  something  to  remind  her  every  day  of  a 
definite  career  before  her  for  which  they  are  the 
foundation.  And  when  she  has  done  with  school, 
she  finds  herself  with  nothing  to  do.  The  young  man 
while  in  college  may  throw  himself  into  base-ball 
and  boating  as  though  these  were  the  most  moment- 


32 


WOMANHOOD. 


ous  things  in  life,  but  he  comes  out,  and  forthwith 
he  finds  himself  with  serious  business  on  hand.  An 
earth-worm  he  may  become,  toiling  sordidly  for 
the  precious  dust,  but  a butterfly  he  has  small 
chance  to  be — unless,  indeed,  he  be  one  of  For- 
tune’s unhappy  favorites,  born  with  a gold  spoon 
in  his  mouth.  Otherwise  he  is  compelled  to  choose 
some  kind  of  a goal,  high  or  low,  and  work  toward 
it.  With  the  young  woman  it  is  otherwise.  The 
close  of  school-days,  which  increases  the  pressure 
upon  the  young  man  toward  seriousness  of  purpose, 
takes  olf  the  pressure  from  the  young  woman  and 
leaves  her  to  the  alternative  of  aimless  drifting  or 
of  choosing  and  holding  before  herself,  by  her  own 
force  of  character,  some  serious  purpose  to  which 
circumstances  do  not  constrain  her. 

Nor  is  this  all.  She  finds  herself  now  face  to 
face  with  the  claims  of  society.  This  is  fitting 
enough  if  properly  understood.  The  brightening 
of  social  intercourse,  the  entertaining  of  strangers, 
the  interchange  of  the  offices  of  good-neighborhood, 
the  bringing  together  of  various  households  into  a 
harmonious  and  friendly  Avhole,  is  pre-eminently 
woman’s  work.  But  what  is  society  as  it  presents 
itself  to  the  young  maiden  when  she  is  ready  to 


PURPOSE. 


33 


‘^come  out”?  It  is  an  uninterrupted  round  of 
merrymakings  and  shows  and  vanities  wliose 
avowed  aim  is  amusement  pure  and  simple,  and 
which  bring  neither  health  to  the  frame,  culture  to 
the  mind,  enlargement  to  the  sympathies,  nor  peace 
to  the  heart.  And  on  this  rushing,  eddying  stream 
of  pleasure-seeking  the  young  debutante  is  launched 
as  the  serious  business  of  life.  These  are  her  social 
duties  ! This  is  her  woman’s  sphere  ! This  is  the 
reasonable  service  to  which  she,  a child  of  God,  is 
to  dedicate  the  first  fresh  years  of  her  womanhood  ! 
This  intoxication,  this  delirium,  which  destroys  the 
power  of  earnest  thought  and  the  taste  for  serious 
study,  which  makes  any  conversation  beyond  the 
lightest  badinage  an  impossibility  and  any  occupa- 
tion more  laborious  than  fancy-work  or  decorative 
art  a drudgery — this  is  her  preparation  for  the  tre- 
mendous responsibilities  of  wifehood  and  mother- 
hood ! 

For,  after  all,  these  are  in  the  background.  Why 
is  it  that  the  young  girl  has  nothing  to  do  but 
dance  and  laugh  the  hours  "away,  while  her  brother, 
in  shop  or  store  or  office,  is  developing  a man’s 
strength  under  a man’s  responsibilities  ? Is  it  not 
because  she  is  waiting  for  her  destiny  ? She  seeks 


34 


WOMANHOOD. 


110  serious  purpose,  slie  attempts  no  useful  work, 
because  these  years  are  a mere  breathing-space,  a 
mere  holiday  of  uncertain  length,  between  the 
routine  of  school  and  the  burdens  of  married  life. 
So  it  comes  to  pass  that  the  outlook  which  should 
be  the  most  sobering  of  all,  the  very  thought  of 
which  should  be  enough  to  breathe  a soul  of 
womanhood  into  the  most  careless,  thoughtless 
Undine  that  ever  lived,  itself  becomes  an  uncon- 
scious pretext  for  a life  of  frivolity  and  jileasure- 
seeking.  Then,  if,  after  all  this  idle  waiting,  mar- 
riage does  not  come,  life  is  a failure  indeed. 

Yet  let  it  not  be  imagined  that  it  is  only  within 
the  charmed  circle  of  what  is  called  “ society  ” that 
the  woman  who  lives  in  pleasure  is  to  be  found. 
Of  utter  aimlessness,  emptiness  of  head  and  shal- 
lowness of  heart  the  boarding-house  can  furnish  as 
striking  examples  as  the  salon.  And  there  is  many 
a poor  man’s  home  where  the  father  toils  early  and 
late  at  the  bench  or  the  forge,  and  the  mother  at 
the  washtub,  that  the  daughters  may  trick  them- 
selves out  in  cheap  finery  and  gad  about  to  picnics 
and  balls  under  the  impression  that  to  live  in 
pleasure  is  to  become  ladies. 

Nor,  again,  let  it  be  imagined  that  it  is  only 


PURPOSE. 


35 


among  the  openly  irreligious  that  the  spectacle  of 
this  living  death  is  to  be  seen.  Alas ! in  our  day 
as  in  Paul’s — yes,  in  our  day  more  than  in  Paul’s 
— there  is  many  a dead  soul  wearing  the  garments 
and  going  through  the  motions  of  the  new  life.  It 
is  a terribly  easy  thing  in  these  days  for  a young 
woman  to  join  the  church.  I use  the  word  “ter- 
ribly ” advisedly.  I mean  it  is  an  alarmingly, 
dangerously  easy  thing — much  easier  for  her  than 
for  a young  man.  A young  girl’s  outward  life 
furnishes  fewer  marked  tests  than  a young  man’s 
of  the  sincerity  of  her  faith.  She  takes  more  nat- 
urally to  the  outward  forms  of  devotion.  She  has 
less  opposition  or  ridicule  to  fear  than  a young  man. 
Indeed,  it  is  rather  “the  thing”  for  her  to  do. 
And  so  it  comes  to  pass  that  many  a young  woman 
may  be  found  in  the  church — nay,  even  active  in 
church-work  after  her  fashion  (which,  by  the  way, 
may  be  a good-enough  fashion  as  far  as  it  goes) ; 
that  is,  in  entertainments,  sociables,  fancy-fairs,  , 
church  decoration,  especially  if  there  are  agreeable 
young  men  to  help — withal  a teacher  in  the  Sun- 
day-school— after  her  fashion  again,  which  is  the 
very  simple  one  of  opening  the  lesson-paper,  read- 
ing oflF  the  questions  just  as  they  come,  and  then 


36 


WOMANHOOD. 


leaning  over  to  talk  with  the  teacher  of  the  next 
class  about  the  dress  she  is  having  made  or  the 
party  she  was  at  last  night, — I say  the  young 
woman  may  be  found  who  is  all  this,  and  yet  whose 
life  is  as  devoid  of  any  deep,  earnest  purpose  as  the 
life  of  the  butterfly  that  flits  above  the  meadow. 
She  plays  at  Christian  work  just  as,  when  in  the 
mood,  she  plays  at  housework  or  at  literary  studies. 

Such  is  the  character  with  which  an  apostle  here 
deals.  What  now  is  his  judgment  upon  it?  “She 
that  liveth  in  pleasure  is  dead  while  she  liveth.” 
Dead  ! It  is  a solemn  word.  Dead  while  she 
liveth ! It  is  a strong  picture.  An  animated 
corpse — moving,  speaking,  laughing,  yet  dead. 
Dead  to  God ; dead  to  the  real  purpose  of  life ; 
dead  to  all  true  womanhood. 

Oh,  you  say,  this  is  strong  language.  This  will 
do  to  say  of  the  young  man  who  gives  himself  up 
to  the  lusts  of  the  flesh.  He  is  indeed  dead  while 
he  lives.  But  mere  frivolity,  mere  thoughtlessness 
and  aimlessness — how  can  these  be  stigmatized  as  a 
living  death?  Yet,  believe  me,  there  is  not  so 
much  difference  as  you  think.  The  lust  of  the 
eyes  and  the  pride  of  life  are  just  as  deadly  to  the 


PURPOSE. 


37 


soul  as  is  the  lust  of  the  flesh.  A life  of  vain 
pleasure-seeking  will  undermine  womanhood  as 
fatally  as  dissipation  saps  manhood.  Yonthful 
buoyancy  disguises  for  a time  the  emptiness  of  soul 
beneath,  and  gives,  even  to  the  most  shallow  pleas- 
ure-seeker, a sort  of  charm  like  that  which  infantile 
grace  gives  to  some  of  the  faults  of  childhood. 
But  as  that  infantile  grace  soon  wears  ofP  and  leaves 
the  faults  visible  in  their  undisguised  repulsiveness, 
so  the  charm  of  youth  soon  vanishes  and  leaves 
the  dreariest  of  spectacles — a woman  mature  in 
years,  but  childish  in  mind  and  character,  without 
serious  interests,  without  earnest  occupation,  whose 
one  desperate  endeavor  is  to  prolong  by  arts  only 
too  transparent  the  semblance  of  that  youth  to 
which  alone  the  pleasures  for  which  she  lives  have 
any  fitness.  Can  the  Holy  Spirit  dwell  in  such  a 
temple  as  that?  Can  the  Lord  Jesus  have  any 
fellowship  with  such  a soul  as  that  ? Ho  ! She  is 
not  only  dead  to  any  experience  of  religion,  but 
wellnigh  dead  to  any  appeal  of  religion.  Her 
heart  is  the  trodden  path  on  which  the  good  seed 
falls  only  to  be  instantly  caught  away  by  the  fowls 
of  the  air.  There  is  no  face — I say  it  in  all  sad- 
ness— into  which  the  preacher  of  the  gospel  looks 


38 


WOMANHOOD. 


with  less  hope  of  awakening  any  response  to  his 
message  than  the  face  of  a frivolous  woman. 

Dead,  but  not  buried,  and  therefore  a dead- 
weight upon  all  the  living  with  whom  she  still 
has  ties.  Oh  what  a melancholy  sight  when  she 
who  was  made  to  be  a helpmeet,  a ])rop,  a stay, 
a strong  tower  for  refuge  to  the  tempted  and  the 
disheartened,  becomes  instead  a mere  clog  and 
burden  which  they  most  cany  ! Yet  such  she  is. 

A dead-weight  upon  her  father,  while  she  is 
still  his  care.  What  a pitiful  spectacle  it  is — a 
man  toiling  early  and  late  in  his  counting-room, 
rarely  taking  a vacation,  reducing  him.self  to  a 
mere  machine  for  the  coining  of  dollars,  that  his 
daughters  may  make  an  annual  display  of  bewil- 
dering toilets  and  go  through  an  annual  round  of 
senseless  gayeties  at  some  fashionable  watering- 
place  ! As  for  companionship,  as  for  helpful- 
ness, as  for  intelligent  sympathy  in  his  plans  and 
struggles,  the  man  might  as  well  look  to  the  cat 
that  purrs  at  his  feet. 

A dead- weight  upon  her  husband,  when  she  has 
one.  There  is  no  surer,  heavier,  more  hopeless 
drag  upon  a manly  courage  and  ambition  than  a 
weak,  frivolous,  self-indulgent  wife  whose  one 


PURPOSE. 


39 


concern  in  life  is  present  pleasure.  In  great  crises 
which  demand  nerve  and  resolution  she  unmans 
him  as  did  that  Britisli  naval  officer’s  wife  whose 
helpless  terror  in  shipwreck  so  unnerved  her  hus- 
band and  brought  such  disaster  as  to  lead  to  a rule 
forbidding  wives  of  naval  officers  to  sail  in  the 
same  ship  with  their  husbands.  Of  such  a woman 
Miss  Yonge  has  well  said  that  when  pain  and 
anguish  wring  the  brow”  she  is  likely  to  be  too 
much  occupied  with  her  own  hysterics  to  be  “ a 
ministering  angel.”  Still  worse,  however,  than 
this  failure  at  great  crises  is  the  daily  drag  of  her 
aimlessness  and  selfishness  upon  his  manhood. 
Such  a wife  may  be  amiable,  affectionate,  doting, 
indeed.  So  much  the  worse  for  her  husband.  If 
she  were  a termagant,  he  could  harden  himself 
against  her;  but  when  she  coaxes  and  cries,  and, 
like  Samson’s  wife,  lies  sore  iqion  him,  treating 
every  self-denial  which  he  asks  her  to  share  as 
a proof  of  coldness,  and  every  sacrifice  for  honor 
and  for  conscience’  sake  as  a fraud  against  her 
rights  and  those  of  her  children,  what  is  he  to 
do?  What  he  will  do  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten 
is  what  Lydgate  did  when  he  married  Rosamond 
Viucy — give  up  all  high  ambition  for  study,  for 


40 


WOMANHOOD. 


research,  for  self-denying  service  of  his  fellow- 
men,  stifle  the  voice  of  conscience  when  it  demands 
sacrifice,  and  devote  himself  to  the  one  sole  concern 
of  gaining,  by  hook  or  by  crook,  the  wherewithal 
to  keep  sunshine  at  his  fireside  by  the  unlimited 
indulgence  of  a frivolous  woman’s  fancies. 

Oh,  young  women,  better  Avere  it  for  you  that  a 
millstone  were  hanged  about  your  necks  and  that 
you  Avere  droAvned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea  than 
that  you  yourselves  should  be  the  millstones  to 
sink  a fellow-mortal  in  this  bottomless  abyss  of 
worldliness. 

She  is  a dead-Aveight  upon  her  children,  “she 
that  liveth  in  pleasure.”  Can  you  couple  Avith  this 
description  the  holy  name  of  “mother”?  She  dis- 
misses her  children  to  the  care  of  ser\"ants  that  her 
round  of  gayety  may  go  on  uninterrupted.  Better 
were  it  for  such  children  if  they  Avere  motherless 
in  name,  as  they  are  in  fact ; for  then  other  hearts 
would  yearn  toward  them  and  some  true  home 
open  to  take  them  in. 

Such  a Avoman  is  a dead-Aveight  upon  the  church, 
to  which  her  sundry  effei’A^escent  actiAuties  are  a 
very  poor  compensation  for  the  blighting  influence 
of  her  Avorldliness  upon  its  spiritual  life  and  the 


PURPOSE. 


41 


terrible  stumbling-block  which  her  frivolity  lays 
in  the  way  of  impenitent  souls. 

A gay  young  woman  who  had  grown  up  a stran- 
ger to  religious  influences,  and  was  devoted  to  the 
theatre,  the  dance,  and  otlier  forms  of  amusement, 
went  to  visit  in  a Christian  family  connected  with 
a certain  church.  Her  attention  was  aroused  by 
the  new  life  around  her,  and  she  began  to  ask  many 
earnest  questions.  In  the  church  was  quite  a party 
of  young  people  who  had  their  own  prayer-meeting 
and  literary  circle.  To  these  she  was  introduced. 
She  found  their  conversation  just  like  that  to  which 
all  her  life  she  had  been  accustomed.  They  enlarged 
with  zest  upon  the  gayeties  of  the  town ; their  talk 
was  of  actresses  and  of  balls.  Naturally  a leader, 
this  young  lady  soon  took  the  initiative  in  their 
amusements.  When  she  found  that  her  companions 
at  the  Saturday  play  were  Christian  young  women 
who  helped  to  sustain  the  prayer-meeting  and  taught 
in  the  Sabbath-school,  she  could  not  understand 
how  they  could  be  interested  in  such  dull  work ; 
but  when  they  laughed  constrainedly  and  with  an 
apologetic  remark  or  two  turned  eagerly  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  play  or  the  party,  all  thought  of  their 
Christian  profession  as  a serious  or  important  thing, 


42 


WOMANHOOD. 


and  all  interest  in  Christianity  for  herself,  seemed 
to  be  dismissed  from  her  mmd,  and  she  returned  to 
her  home  as  worldly,  as  indifPerent,  as  she  had 
come. 

What  is  it,  then,  young  woman,  that  you  need  to 
save  you  from  this  living  death,  this  withering 
away  of  your  true  womanhood  ? Just  this  : an  earn- 
est 'purpose,  an  aim  in  life  worthy  of  all  that  is 
deepest  and  strongest  in  a woman’s  nature — an  aim 
which  you  can  pursue  with  all  a girl’s  fresh  enthu- 
siasm, and  with  which  the  maturer  nature  of  the 
woman  will  still  be  fully  satisfied. 

If  you  would  make  any  approach  to  an  ideal  wo- 
manhood, purpose  is  the  first  thing  to  be  considered. 
No  one  ever  yet  drifted  into  true  womanhood,  or 
true  manliood,  either.  Life  is  an  earnest  thing,  and 
you  will  miss  all  its  glory  and  all  its  reward  if  you 
take  it  as  a jest.  Is  your  life  free  from  care  ? Is  it 
chained  down  to  no  hard  necessity  of  daily  toil  ? 
This,  so  far  from  being  a hindrance,  should  be  a 
gain  : you  are  free  then  to  give  it  any  bent  you  will. 
These  years  are  absolutely  in  your  hands  to  shape 
to  any  purpose  of  self-culture,  of  helpfulness  in  the 
home  circle,  of  useful  ministry  abroad,  to  which 


PURPOSE. 


43 


you  choose  to  devote  them.  And  what  golden 
years  you  may  make  them  ! What  a throng  of 
wearied  housewives  and  busy,  care-taking  mothers 
are  looking  back  with  regret  to-day  as  they  exclaim, 
“ Oh,  if  I had  only  made  more  of  my  girlhood  ! 
If  I had  only  turned  it  to  account  while  it  lasted, 
instead  of  frittering  it  away  in  vanities  !”  But  you 
must  shape  these  years  for  youi'self,  or  they  will 
run  to  waste.  The  very  fact  that  you  have  no  life- 
work  thrust  upon  you  doubles  your  responsibility 
to  find  one  for  yourself. 

Look  into  your  own  heart  and  ask  thoughtfully. 
What  is  worth  living  for?  and,  having  found  an 
answer,  live  for  that.  Let  that  purpose  govern 
your  distribution  of  your  time,  control  your  com- 
panionships, determine  your  reading,  prescribe  your 
employments  and  set  a bound  to  your  pleasures. 
There  is  no  danger  that  such  a purjjose  will  dull 
your  vivacity  or  take  the  zest  out  of  your  life.  No 
life  palls  so  swiftly  as  a life  of  mere  pleasure-seek- 
ing. There  is  a vivacity  like  the  sparkle  of  cham- 
pagne— a moment’s  froth,  and  then  flatness ; and 
there  is  a vivacity  like  the  flash  of  the  diamond — 
the  gleam  of  a well-trained  mind  and  a strong, 
hopeful  heart. 


44 


WOMANHOOD. 


And  what  shall  that  purpose  be  ? Any  earnest, 
serious  purpose  will  save  you  from  frivolity,  but 
not  every  purpose  will  lift  you  to  the  full  height 
of  an  ideal  womanhood.  A purpose  to  become  a 
thorough  housekeeper  or  an  accomplished  scholar, 
a skillful  artist  or  a well-trained  musician — any 
one  of  these  is  better  and  worthier  of  your  woman- 
hood than  a mere  butterfly  life.  But  oh,  I beseech 
you,  when  you  are  choosing,  choose  the  highest. 
Think  of  that  woman  of  whom  Jesus  said,  One 
thing  is  needful ; and  Mary  hath  chosen  that  good  part 
which  shall  not  be  taken  away  from  her.”  There 
is  no  purpose  which  so  harmonizes  with  all  that  is 
noblest  in  womanhood  as  the  purpose  of  unselfish 
service  to  One  who  is  worthy  of  the  highest  love. 
Here  is  a destiny  which  you  have  not  to  wait  for : 
it  is  waiting  for  you.  You  have  but  to  embi’ace 
it,  and  it  will  fill  your  heart  with  abundant  peace ; 
it  will  fill  your  hands  with  useful  ministries ; it 
will  crowd  your  days  with  fruitful  labor ; it  will 
make  you  worthy  to  be  the  centre  of  a home,  the 
guardian  of  immortal  souls,  if  God  calls  you  to  be : 
it  will  make  your  life  full  and  complete,  if  he  does 
not.  And  here,  too,  is  a sphere  large  enough  for 
the  most  abounding  energy  and  the  most  restless 


rUEPOSE. 


45 


ambitiou.  Say  uot,  Our  hands  are  tied ; the  doors 
of  useful  service  are  closed  against  us ; we  are 
doomed  to  aimlessness.  In  Christ’s  service  there 
are  open  doors  enough  waiting  for  your  entrance. 
Nothing  to  do?  With  so  many  poor  to  help^  so 
many  sick  in  hospitals  longing  for  the  sound  of  a 
woman’s  voice  and  the  touch  of  a woman’s  hand, 
so  many  children  to  be  gathered  in  from  the  street 
and  led  to  the  Saviour,  so  many  heathen — at  our 
own  doors  even — to  be  sought  with  the  message  of 
salvation  ? No  ! If  you  have  a purpose  as  earn- 
est and  as  consistent  as  Emily  Faithfull’s  or  Mary 
Lyon’s  or  Sister  Dora’s,  it  will  not  want  for  a 
sphere.  It  will  make  its  own  sphere,  and  it  will 
fill  it  full  with  the  power  of  a Christlike  service 
and  with  the  light  of  a true  womanhood. 

Oh,  you  poor  souls  living  in  pleasure,  and  thus 
dead  while  you  live,  what  can  I say  to  you  ? How 
can  I make  you  see  what  you  are  losing  ? How  can 
I show  you  the  crown  you  are  throwing  away? 
What  can  I say  but  repeat  the  old  call,  “ Awake, 
ye  that  sleep,  and  arise  from  the  dead,  and  Christ 
shall  give  you  light  ” ? To  live  for  Christ — that, 
and  that  alone,  is  truly  to  live.  Learn  what  that 
means,  bring  your  lives  under  the  power  of  that 


4G 


^YOMANHOOD. 


supreme  purpose,  and  you  shall  be  as  those  who 
have  awakened  from  a trance.  It  will  be  a veri- 
table resurrection.  And  in  the  realities  of  that 
deep,  strong  life  your  soul  will  find  that  which  will 
for  ever  uplift  and  for  ever  satisfy  it, 

“And  so  make  life,  death  and  that  vast  for  ever 
One  grand,  sweet  song.” 


III. 


OCCUPATION. 


“And  withal  they  learn  to  be  idle,  wandering  about 
from  house  to  house  ; and  not  only  idle,  but  tattlers 
also,  and  busybodies,  speaking  things  which  they 
ought  not.” — 1 Tim.  v.  13. 


H'ESE  words — from  tlie  same  chapter  wlieuce 


we  drew  the  warning  against  a purposeless  life 
— present  a strong  picture  of  the  effects  upon 
womanly  character  of  a life  without  occupation. 
Without  attempting  to  follow  its  outlines  in  detail, 

I desire  to  direct  your  attention  to  the  subject 
which  it  suggests — occupation  as  related  to  the 
development  of  womanhood. 

I have  pointed  out  the  necessity  of  an  earnest  ' 
purpose  as  a safeguard  against  the  temptation  to 
emptiness  and  frivolity  arising  from  the  want  of 
fixed  and  absorbing  employment.  It  was  necessary 
to  begin  at  that  point.  An  earnest  purpose  is  the 
first  requisite  to  the  attainment  of  true  womanhood. 


47 


48 


WOMANHOOD. 


So  long  as  a young  woman  has  no  higher  \iew  of 
life  and  no  more  serious  aim  than  to  amuse  herself, 
it  is  wasted  breath  to  warn  her  against  waste  of 
time  or  to  urge  the  importance  of  useful  occupation. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  earnest  purpose  itself, 
once  found,  is  in  danger  of  abandonment  if  it  fail 
of  wise  direction  into  some  line  of  useful,  well- 
ordered  activity.  The  two  must  go  together — earn- 
estness and  industry,  purpose  and  plan — else  the 
l)eautiful  enthusiasms  of  opening  womanhood, 

“Standing  with  reluctant  feet 
Where  the  brook  and  river  meet, 

Womanhood  and  childhood  sweet,” 

will  all  evaporate  and  leave  only  the  listlessness  of 
baffled  energy  and  the  hard,  peculiarly  unwomanly 
cynicism  which  comes  of  conscious  disloyalty  to 
one’s  own  ideals. 

Full  well  I know  that  with  many  a young 
woman  this  is  the  exact  dilemma  to-day.  The 
high  ideal,  the  deep  unselfish  purpose,  are  there, 
but  the  hands  seem  tied ; the  conditions  of  life 
appear  to  forbid  the  execution  of  the  purpose,  and 
the  earnest  Avomanly  soul  has  no  way  of  escape 
from  unwilling  bondage  to  pettiness  and  frivolity. 
I should  not  deal  fairly  with  you,  therefore,  did  I 


OCCUPATION. 


49 


not  pause  to  cousider  also  this  question  of  occupa- 
tion, and  try  at  least  to  give  some  hints  which  may 
help  you  to  transmute  your  bright  dreams  of 
womanly  helpfulness  into  substantial  and  beautiful 
realities. 

But  here  I am  confronted  with  the  fact  that  this 
matter  of  occupation  presents  itself  in  very  different 
forms  to  two  classes  of  young  women,  both  of 
which  are  found  in  every  community.  There 
are  young  women  who  from  a very  early  period 
find  themselves  constrained  by  circumstances  to 
become  bread-winners  either  for  themselves  or  for 
others.  Such  may  regret — not  unreasonably — the 
opportunities  for  self-culture  possessed  by  those  of 
their  sisters  who  are  relieved  of  the  problem  of 
self-support;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  they  may 
congratulate  themselves  that  they  are  spared  the 
temptations  of  idleness  and  the  perplexity,  often 
most  painful  to  an  earnest,  self-respecting  young 
women,  involved  in  the  question,  “ What  shall  I 
do?”  It  is  to  these  last — the  young  women  to 
whom  the  resources  of  a happy  home  ensure  a 
leisure  which  is  theirs  to  fill  up  at  will — that  my 
theme  especially  addresses  itself. 

4 


50 


WOMANHOOD. 


Yet  that  I may  not  seem  to  slight  a class  which 
J have  had  through  life  the  most  profound  reason 
to  honor,  and  that  I may  not  miss  the  only  oppor- 
tunity which  this  course  of  sermons  affords  me  to 
say  what  may  be  to  some  a needed  word,  let  me 
pause  here  long  enough  to  say  two  things  to  all 
young  women  to  whom  the  word  “ occupation  ” 
stands  for  their  means  of  support. 

First,  do  not  he  ashamed  of  your  morh,  whatever 
it  be,  and  never  allow  yourselves  to  think  of  it  as 
debarring  you  from  the  pursuit  and  achievement 
of  the  truest  womanhood.  An  honorable  independ- 
ence is  unspeakably  more  womanly  than  a dishon- 
orable dependence.  There  is,  indeed,  in  the  ideal 
relation  of  the  sexes  an  honorable  dependence  for 
woman,  as  there  is  not  for  man.  It  is  in  the  plan 
of  God  that  man  should  be  the  bread-winner,  and 
that  his  toil  should  secure  to  woman  freedom  for 
work  more  spontaneous  and  spiritual.  It  is  not 
dishonorable,  therefore,  for  a woman  to  depend 
pecuniarily  upon  the  father  or  husband,  as  it  is 
dishonorable  for  a man — special  cases  of  sickness 
or  calamity  apart — to  depend  upon  the  labors  of 
wife  or  daughter.  But  this  ideal  is  most  imper- 
fectly realized  in  society  as  it  now  is,  and  nothing 


OCCUPATION. 


51 


can  be  farther  from  that  helpfulness  which  is  the 
soul  of  true  womauhood  than  to  lie  a limp  and 
voluntary  burden  upon  hands  already  too  heavy 
laden  to  support  the  weight,  or  to  accept  at  the 
hands  of  strangers  the  bread  of  genteelly-disguised 
charity.  Withal,  you  are  American  women ; and 
for  that,  if  you  have  your  own  living  to  earn,  you 
have  peculiar  reason  to  be  thankful.  Doubtless 
there  is  nowhere  in  the  world  a social  order  wholly 
free  from  snobbishness  and  the  spirit  of  caste ; yet 
there  is  no  land  under  the  snn,  I well  believe,  where 
honest  work  carries  less  of  a stigma,  where  men, 
and  women  too,  are  taken  more  nearly  at  their  in- 
trinsic value — where,  in  short,  it  is  more  nearly 
true  that 

“A  man’s  a man  for  a’  that” 

— than  in  this  republic  of  ours.  I think  over  the 
women,  happily  not  few,  in  whom  I have  learned 
to  know  and  reverence  true  womanhood — ladies  in 
the  best  sense  of  that  much-abused  word,  recognized 
as  such  in  any  social  circle  that  is  worth  the  enter- 
ing— and  I find  that  the  greater  number  of  them 
have  at  some  time  in  their  lives  earned  their  own 
bread. 

Finally,  you  are  Christian  women,  or  you  may 


52 


WOMANHOOD. 


be.  If  you  are  uot,  the  whole  foundation  of  true 
womanhood  is  wanting.  But  to  her  who  accepts  it 
from  Christ’s  hands  there  is  no  work,  however  hum- 
ble, however  wearisome,  however  distasteful,  which 
may  not  be  made  tributary  to  the  truest  refinement, 
to  the  noblest  womanhood,  to  the  perfecting  in  you 
of  His  likeness  whose  chief  joy  it  was  to  do  the 
will  of  Him  that  sent  him  and  to  finish  his  work. 
George  Herbert’s  lines  are  none  the  less  worthy  to 
be  recalled  here  because  quoted  so  often  : 

“ A servant,  with  this  clause, 

Makes  drudgery  divine : 

Who  sweeps  a room  as  for  thy  laws 
Makes  that  and  th’  action  fine.” 

Only — and  this  brings  me  to  the  second  thing  I 
had  to  say — 

Do  not  slight  your  work  because  it  has  come  to 
you  by  compulsion,  and  not  of  choice.  There  is  a 
great  outcry  in  some  quarters  against  the  disparity 
between  men’s  w^ages  and  women’s.  I am  not  pre- 
pared to  deny  that  there  is  a measure  of  justice  in 
tliis  outcry ; in  other  words,  that  the  disparity  is  in 
part  the  result  of  arbitrary  discrimination.  In  part, 
again,  the  evil  is  occasioned  by  the  overcrowding. 


OCCUPATION. 


53 


and  consequent  competition,  of  women  in  a few  call- 
ings, for  which  there  is  no  remedy  so  long  as  the 
prejudices  of  society,  and  especially  of  women  them- 
selves, shut  them  up  to  these  callings  as  alone  com- 
patible with  the  coveted  social  standing.  But  it  is 
the  general  testimony  of  employers — entitled  to 
thoughtful  consideration,  therefore,  even  if  it  seem 
harsh — that  this  disparity  in  pay  is  largely  due  to 
difference  in  the  grade  of  work.  It  is  asserted  that 
but  few  women  can  be  found  who  show  the  same 
thoroughness,  the  same  enthusiasm  for  their  work, 
the  same  determination  to  reach  the  top,  that  are 
shown  by  the  best  class  of  male  workers.  With 
them  their  work  is  less  of  a passion  and  more  of  a 
makeshift.  This  is  perfectly  natural,  in  view  of  the 
possibility  that  it  may  be  but  a temporary  expedi- 
ent. It  is  not  reasonable  to  expect  the  majority  of 
women  to  enter  a calling,  of  whatever  sort,  with  the 
same  entire  surrender  to  it  as  a life-work  which 
ought  to  be  expected  of  men.  Nevertheless,  what 
is  worth  doing  at  all  is  worth  doing  well.  Thor- 
oughness in  one  thing  is  the  best  preparation  for 
thoroughness  in  another  thing.  Whatever  your 
calling,  therefore,  aim  at  the  top-round  of  excel- 
lence in  it.  Whether  or  not  wages  depend  u])oa 


54 


WOMANHOOD. 


it,  whether  or  not  future  ease  and  comfort  depend 
upon  it,  your  womanhood  depends  upon  it. 

Having  said  so  much  upon  this  head,  let  me 
address  myself  now  to  those  young  women  whose 
exemption  from  compulsory  occupation  constitutes 
one  of  their  principal  dangers — the  young  women 
of  leisure. 

I read  the  other  day  from  an  English  magazine 
a genuine  and  really  moving  presentation  by  “A 
Belgravian  Young  Lady”  of  tlie  dilemma  of  a 
young  woman  of  the  higher  classes  when,  with 
the  elements  of  a noble  womanhood  in  her,  witli 
high  ideals  and  spiritual  visions  of  self-sacrifice, 
she  comes,  the  routine  of  the  school-room  over, 
to  confront  the  question,  What  shall  I do?  At 
home  an  ample  retinue  of  servants  renders  her 
services  superfluous.  In  the  parish  school  or  in 
district  visiting  she  finds  the  ground  occupied  by 
those  much  her  superiors  in  experience  and  in 
skill.  If  she  turns  to  books,  she  is  deterred  from 
any  thorough  and  systematic  study  by  the  want 
of  companionship  and  definiteness  of  object,  and  by 
the  gentle  raillery  of  the  home  circle  at  her  blue- 
stocking proclivities,  till  at  length  she  gives  it  up. 


OCCUPATION. 


55 


and  under  her  mother’s  guidance  drops  into  the 
common  round  of  fashionable  pleasures. 

The  picture,  it  is  true,  cannot  be  transferred 
without  modification  to  the  circumstances  of  the 
American  girl.  The  greater  freedom  and  natural- 
ness of  American  life  bring  marked  alleviations 
of  these  difficulties.  Yet  many  a young  woman 
in  every  city  is  environed,  I doubt  not,  by  quite 
similar  perplexities.  I was  not  unmindful  of  such 
perplexities  in  my  warning  in  a former  discourse 
against  a life  of  frivolous  pleasure-seeking.  Let 
me  try  to  enter  into  them  with  you  and  show 
you  a way  out  of  them. 

First  of  all,  then,  let  it  be  said  that,  perplexity 
or  no  perplexity,  wholesome  regular  occupation  of 
some  sort  is  a necessity.  You  cannot  afibrd  to 
be  idle.  Physically  you  cannot  afford  it.  Not 
while  you  are  creatures  of  flesh  aud  blood  can  you 
escape  the  law  that  activity  means  growth  and 
health  and  that  idleness  means  deterioration.  In 
the  mere  matter  of  beauty  idleness  is  a loss  as  truly 
as  excessiv^e  drudgery.  The  erect,  dignified  car- 
riage, the  firm,  elastic  step,  the  well-rounded  arm, 
are  not  to  be  won  by  days  passed  on  the  sofa  or 
in  the  hammock  with  a novel  in  the  hand  ; nor  are 


56 


WOMANHOOD. 


the  maiden  bloom,  the  clear,  fresh  complexion,  the 
modest,  thoughtful,  yet  animated  glance,  to  be  kept 
amid  late  hours,  heated  rooms  and  exciting  pleas- 
ures. Idleness  inevitably  gives  rise  to  a craving 
for  excitement  which  may  drive  away  the  ennui 
which  is  its  penalty.  But  excitement  persistently 
followed  is  the  source  of  all  manner  of  nervous 
disorders,  resulting  at  last  in  the  production  of 
the  languid,  nervous,  hysterical  creature  into  which 
the  gay  young  woman  so  often  degenerates.  This 
craving  for  excitement  is  a j^revalent  characteristic 
of  the  young  women  of  to-day,  especially  in  our 
cities.  So  marked  is  it  that,  as  a thoughtful  wo- 
man whose  life  has  been  devoted  to  the  training 
of  young  women  recently  observed  to  me,  even 
church-work  has  little  charm  for  many  of  those 
who  engage  in  it  unless  done  in  a kind  of  the- 
atrical way.  The  effect  of  idleness,  too,  is  to  turn 
the  thoughts  in  a morbid  degree  upon  one’s  own 
condition,  to  magnify  trifling  ailments  into  grave 
maladies,  and  eventually,  by  sheer  force  of  the 
mind’s  influence  upon  the  body,  to  convert  the 
vigorous,  energetic  girl  into  an  interesting  invalid. 

As  an  example,  on  the  other  hand,  of  the  power 
of  oecujxitiou  to  promote  health  and  long  life,  I 


OCCUPATION. 


57 


could  tell  you  of  a woman  of  wealth  and  refine- 
ment, a real  and  grievous  sutferer  from  wasting  dis- 
ease, whose  life  is  believed  to  have  been  prolonged 
for  years  by  her  active  interest  in  a charitable 
institution  which  she  was  largely  instrumental  in 
building  up.  I could  take  you  to-day  to  a cham- 
ber in  a distant  city  where  you  would  find  a worn 
and  wasted  sutferer,  confined  these  many  years 
within  those  walls  by  spinal  disease,  who  is  lifted 
above  her  sufferings,  made  cheerful  and  hopeful, 
and  so  in  a sense  even  physically  strong,  by  her 
co-operation  with  various  enterprises  of  benevo- 
lence and  philanthropy  to  which  she  is  a constant 
inspiration.* 

But  idleness  is  still  more  hurtful  morally.  It 
is  as  true  for  young  women  as  for  any  others  that 

“Satan  finds  some  mischief  still 
For  idle  hands  to  do.” 

Some  of  its  moral  effects  are  suggested  in  the  text. 
She  who  has  no  business  of  her  own  to  attend  to 
is  likely  to  attend  far  too  much  to  other  people’s. 
Constant  excitement,  withal,  is  as  dangerous  to  the 
* The  lady  here  alluded  to,  Mrs.  E.  I.  Lovett,  entered  into 
rest  on  the  day  that  this  sermon  was  preached — Sabbath,  De- 
cember 7,  1884. 


58 


WOMANHOOD. 


character  as  it  is  to  the  nerves.  Like  the  craving 
for  stimulants,  this  is  a craving  which  requires 
stronger  and  stronger  forms  of  gratification,  till 
finally  it  is  not  content  with  anything  less  than 
the  perilous  experiment  of  seeing  how  near  one 
can  come  to  a moral  crater  without  beingr  engulfed. 
This,  I believe — this  exciting  sense  of  risk,  rather 
tlian  any  real  sympathy  with  evil — is  the  secret  of 
much  of  the  “ fastness  ” of  girls  and  of  the  fascina- 
tion which  they  find  in  the  society  of  young  men 
of  doubtful  character.  Sometimes  they  get  safely 
away  from  the  perilous  edge,  and  sometimes  not. 
The  escapades,  the  elopements,  the  marriages  on  a 
day’s  acquaintance,  which  often  turn  out  to  be  no 
marriages  at  all,  that  our  too-faithful  daily  chrou- 
icles  of  vice  and  folly  so  often  spread  before  us,  in 
tqo  many  cases  may  be  traced  back  for  their  first 
beginnings  to  simple  idleness. 

What,  then,  are  you  to  do?  Three  main  lines 
of  occupation  are  ordinarily  open,  to  each  of  which 
the  young  woman  of  leisure,  if  she  is  wise,  will 
regularly  devote  some  part  of  her  time — the  do- 
mestic, the  intellectual  and  the  religious. 

A thorough  knowledge  of  domestic  economy  Ls 


OCCUPATION. 


59 


important  for  every  young  woman.  This  is  true 
whether  or  not  she  ever  expects  to  have  a home 
of  her  own.  Mrs.  Livermore,  whom  no  one  will 
suspect  of  a covert  design  to  limit  woman  to  the 
kitchen  as  her  only  sphere,  says  truly  that  there 
are  very  few  women,  whether  married  or  not,  who 
are  not  at  some  time  in  their  lives  in  a situation  in 
which  such  knowledge  is  very  important.  It  is 
foolish  to  argue  that  this  knowledge  can  be  picked 
up  when  the  need  comes.  In  a measure  it  can,  but 
housekeeping  is  an  art  to  the  perfection  of  which 
much  time  and  much  study  are  needful.  And  it 
cannot  be  thought  creditable  to  any  young  woman 
who  has  had  three  or  four  years’  leisure  in  her 
mother’s  house  that  her  attainments  in  domestic 
economy  should  be  limited  to  cake-making,  dust- 
ing and  the  arrangement  of  bouquets.  I know 
that  mothers  are  often  to  blame  for  this.  They 
are  impatient  of  unskilled  help ; they  can  do  their 
work  themselves  more  easily  and  quickly  than  they 
can  show  their  own  daughters  how  to  do  it.  Be- 
sides, they  want  them  to  enjoy  their  girlhood  : cares 
enough  will  come  by  and  by.  Ah,  mothers ! it  is 
no  real  kindness  to  your  daughters  to  bring  them 
up  in  idleness.  Their  girlhood  will  be  much  hap- 


60 


WOMANHOOD. 


pier  and  more  truly  free  for  some  useful  daily  work 
to  do.  Cares  will  come  soon  enough,  it  is  true, 
but  they  will  be  much  more  lightly  and  cheerfully 
borne  by  hands  well  trained  to  meet  them. 

Yet  neither  would  I have  this  the  main  thing. 
These  are  the  golden  years  for  intellectual  growth. 
They  may  be  succeeded  by  years  so  crowded  with 
other  cares  as  to  leave  no  room  for  wide  reading 
or  thorough  culture.  Such  culture  is  the  sure 
antidote  to  frivolity.  It  is  indispensable  to  a full 
equipment  for  the  social  responsibilities  which  are 
a part  of  woman’s  life.  Conversation  is  an  art 
in  which  every  woman  of  refinement  should  desire 
to  excel,  but  it  is  an  art  which  depends  upon  a full 
mind.  Talk  is  one  thing ; conversation  is  another. 
“ No,  sir,”  said  blunt  Dr.  Johnson ; “ there  was 
no  conversation.  There  was  plenty  of  talk,  but 
no  conversation.”  Whether  that  sarcasm  shall  be 
justly  applicable  to  the  social  intercourse  which 
you  help  to  mould  will  depend,  among  other 
things,  on  whether  you  devote  these  years  of 
your  young  womanhood  to  mental  occupation  in 
the  shape  of  serious,  systematic  reading  and  study, 
or  to  mental  idleness  in  the  shape  of  the  lightest 
of  light  or  the  most  unwholesome  of  sensational 


OCCUPATION. 


G1 


reading.  Oh,  it  is  melancholy  to  think  of  the 
intellectual  waste — the  waste  of  intellectual  op- 
portunity— that  tliere  is  in  many  young  women’s 
lives ! 

The  difficulty  to  be  overcome,  of  course,  is  the 
want  of  guidance  and  companionship.  It  is  only 
the  most  intellectually  eager  who  can  sit  down  all 
by  themselves  and  mark  out  a severe  course  of 
reading  and  study  and  stick  to  it  in  spite  of  the 
thousand  and  one  distractions  that  will  come  up, 
but  this  difficulty  can  be  overcome  by  association.. 
Why  should  it  be  practicable  for  married  women, 
with  all  tlieir  family  cares,  to  maintain  literary  cir- 
cles, and  impracticable  for  young  women  with  their 
time  under  their  own  control  ? Nay,  why  should 
it  be  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  for  young  peo- 
ple to  maintain  a dancing  sociable  or  dramatic  club, 
and  often  the  hardest  thing  in  the  world,  ap- 
parently, to  maintain  a circle  for  the  study  of  his- 
tory or  of  English  literature?  It  might  be  desir- 
able, and  it  ought  not  to  be  impossible,  especially 
in  a city,  to  find  an  older  person  of  thorough 
culture  to  guide  the  studies  of  such  a circle  and 
save  them  from  the  perils  of  desultoriness  and 
superficiality.  Indeed,  this  is  one  of  the  com- 


62 


woyrAyHooD. 


pensations  of  city  life — that,  while  it  brings  to 
young  women  so  many  temptations  to  gayety  and 
frivolity,  it  offers  them,  in  its  libraries,  its  lecture 
courses,  its  institutes  of  various  sorts  and  its  num- 
bers of  finished  scholars  in  every  department,  op- 
portunities of  improvement  for  whicli  the  young 
woman  of  the  village  or  remote  country  town 
often  longs  in  vain. 

But  even  if  this  mode  of  overcoming  the  diffi- 
culty be  found  impossible,  it  may  now  be  met  in 
another  way  by  meairs  of  the  various  correspond- 
ence schools  which  have  of  late  come  into  being 
to  supply  this  very  lack,  and  of  Avhich  tlie  Chau- 
tauqua courses  are  the  most  conspicuous  example. 
I cannot  speak  too  strongly  of  the  good  that  this 
system  is  accomplishing,  nor  urge  too  strongly 
upon  young  women,  whether  employed  or  unem- 
ployed, that  they  avail  themselves  of  its  advantages, 
unless  they  have  already  found  some  better  intel- 
lectual occupation. 

Just  here,  before  I pass  to  the  third  line  of  work 
named,  let  me  add  another  suggestion — not  new  or 
original,  but  probably  all  the  better  for  that. 

It  is  a rule  in  the  imperial  family  of  Germany 
that  every  young  man  shall  acquire  a trade  or 


OCCUPATION. 


63 


handicraft,  going  through  a regular  apprentice- 
ship till  he  is  able  to  do  good,  fair  journey-work. 
This  because  royalty  is  a precarious  dependence. 
Kingdoms  are  subject  to  vicissitudes,  and  it  is 
deemed  necessary  to  a manly  independence  that 
the  heir-apparent  or  a prince  of  the  blood  should 
be  conscious  of  ability  to  make  his  own  way  in 
the  world  in  tlie  event  of  unforeseen  changes. 
It  is  an  honorable  and  prudent  custom,  which 
simply  reinforces  with  the  weight  of  high  example 
the  old  Jewish  precedent  which  requii’ed  every  man 
to  learn  a trade.  On  the  same  principle  exactly,  it 
is  the  belief  of  some  wise  parents  whom  I know 
that  every  young  woman  should  be  trained  to  do 
some  useful  thing  well  enough  to  support  herself 
by  it  if  other  means  should  fail.  And  this  exi- 
gency often  occurs  in  the  ordering  of  Providence, 
and  the  helplessness  of  many  a woman  of  refine- 
ment under  such  circumstances  is  something  painful 
to  contemplate.  Such  a woman  too  often  finds 
either  that  she  can  do  nothing  useful,  nothing  for 
which  a demand  exists,  or  that  what  she  does  she 
does  so  imperfectly  and  superficially  that  it  cannot 
command  a market.  Mr.  Howells  in  one  of  his 
stories  has  depicted  the  struggles  of  his  heroine, 


G4 


WOMANHOOD. 


an  educated  and  accomplished  woman  suddenly 
left  penniless.  She  sets  bravely  to  work  to  turn 
her  accomplishments  to  account  for  self-support. 
First,  she  tries  decorating  pottery,  but  her  work  is 
not  finished  enough  to  bring  her  the  needed  in- 
come ; then  she  tries  coloring  photographs,  then 
writing  for  magazines,  then  fine  millinery — always 
with  the  same  result.  She  can  do  many  things 
after  a fashion,  but  nothing  weli  enough  to  be  well 
paid  for  it,  till  at  last  she  comes  down  to  making 
cheap  bonnets  for  servants ; and  by  that  coarser 
work  she  manages  to  eke  out  a precarious  subsist- 
ence till  the  novelist,  as  the  only  graceful  way  of 
extricating  her  from  so  trying  a situation,  is  com- 
pelled to  marry  her  ofF.  Now,  this  is  a fable 
which  is  not  all  a fable.  Search  beneath  the  roofs 
of  this  city  to-night  and  you  will  find  many  a heroine 
of  this  sort.  Real  heroines  they  are,  too,  many  of 
them,  in  the  courage  and  cheerfulness  of  their 
struggles.  But  suppose  every  young  woman  in 
comfortable  circumstances,  in  her  school-days  or 
in  the  years  that  follow,  were  to  set  herself  to 
master  some  one  thing — no  matter  what : music 
or  millinery,  painting  or  dressmaking,  stenography 
or  Latin — so  thoroughly  that  she  could  make  her 


OCCUrATION. 


65 


services  in  that  occupation  valuable  any wliei’e ; 
how  enviable  the  independence  she  would  thus 
attain  ! How  much  more  calmly  could  she  then 
face  threatened  misfortune ! How  much  higher 
the  plane  on  which  she  would  approach  the  ques- 
tion of  marriage  ! It  would  cease  to  be  a merce- 
nary shift  resorted  to  for  support  or  to  take  a 
burden  off  the  hands  of  parents,  and  would  become 
what  it  ought  to  be — a union  on  equal  terms,  a free 
aud  glad  surrender  of  the  heart. 

But  there  is  other  occupation  still  awaiting  the 
young  woman  who  with  earnestness  of  purpose 
asks  the  question.  What  shall  I do?  Self-culture 
is  well,  but  self-denial  for  others  is  better.  Christ 
has  a work  for  every  young  woman  to  do — a work 
in  which  all  that  is  best  and  noblest  in  womanhood 
will  be  called  forth  and  developed  as  it  can  be  by 
nothing  else.  I do  not  forget  that  all  which  I have 
thus  far  pointed  out,  if  done  with  the  right  pur- 
pose, may  be  to  Christ  an  acceptable  service.  I 
failed  altogether  of  my  design  in  a previous  discourse 
if  I did  not  impress  upon  you  the  service  of  Christ  as 
the  only  purpose  worthy  to  be  the  controlling  princi- 
ple of  your  lives,  and  I have  been  altogether  mis- 
understood thus  far  if  you  have  supposed  me  to  be 

5 


66 


WOMANHOOD. 


advocating  the  performance  of  domestic  duties  or 
the  pursuit  of  intellectual  culture  under  any  other 
inspiration  than  that  of  love  for  him ; yet,  besides 
all  this,  there  is  for  every  follower  of  Christ  a work 
of  ministry,  a work  of  seed-sowing,  to  do — a work 
peculiarly  adapted  to  woman’s  hands,  to  wliich  your 
leisure  constitutes  an  especial  call. 

There  may  have  been  times,  there  may  still  be 
places,  in  which  the  earnest  young  woman  longing 
for  some  practical  way  of  serving  her  IMaster  is 
doomed  to  seek  it  in  vain,  but  that  place  is  not 
amid  the  manifold  religious  and  philanthropic  en- 
terprises, the  hosj)ital  boards,  the  Christian  associa- 
tions, the  woman’s  missionary  societies,  the  Sabbath- 
schools  and  industrial  schools,  of  a great  city, 
with  its  teeming  population  and  its  untold  spiritual 
and  temporal  destitution  ; that  time  is  not  tlie  even- 
ing of  the  nineteenth  century,  among  the  charac- 
teristic marks  of  which  is  the  new  and  wonderful 
development  of  woman’s  agency  in  the  Church  and 
in  the  spread  of  the  gospel.  Christ  has  work 
enough  for  you  to  do — work  that  is  within  your 
reach,  work  to  which  even  your  inexperience  is  no 
bar  provided  you  will  accept  it  on  Christ’s  terms. 
Those  terms  are — first,  that  you  do  not  ask  for  a 


OCCUPATION. 


G7 


great  work ; secondly,  that  you  do  not  ask  for  easy 
work ; thirdly,  that  you  do  not  ask  for  showy 
work. 

For  instance,  there  is  your  Sabbath-school  class. 
“Oh,”  you  say,  “that  is  nothing — only  an  hour 
and  a half  once  a week.”  Well,  if  that  is  all,  I 
agree  with  you  that  it  is  nothing,  or  little  better 
than  nothing.  But  ought  that  to  be  all  ? How 
many  hours  a week  do  you  think  you  could  profit- 
ably spend  in  preparing  to  teach  that  lesson  ? How 
many  days  in  the  month  do  you  think  you  could  prof- 
itably spend  in  following  up  those  scholars,  acquaint- 
ing  yourself  with  their  home-life,  showing  them  that 
you  feel  a personal  interest  in  them,  visiting  them 
in  sickness  or  gathering  them  in  your  own  bright, 
cheerful  home  for  an  hour’s  sewing  or  reading  or 
cheerful  play  ? Ah  ! if,  instead  of  dreaming  of 
the  good  you  would  do  if  you  were  a missionary 
like  Miss  Fiske,  you  will  take  that  class  as  your 
mission  field  and  work  for  the  salvation  of  those 
six  or  seven  immortal  souls  as  Miss  Fiske  worked 
for  the  souls  of  the  little  Nestorian  girls  in  her 
school  at  Ooroomiah,  I do  not  think  you  will  com- 
plain of  empty  hands.  “ Oh,  but — ” you  ex- 
claim. Ah,  yes  ! hut ! But  that  is  self-denying 


68 


WOMANHOOD. 


work,  you  mean.  So  it  is.  Are  you  looking  for 
work  without  self-denial?  Then  you  must  go  to 
some  one  else  than  Christ  for  it.  “But  it  is  so 
much  nicer  to  get  ujj  a bazaar  and  wear  a prett\' 
costume,  and  have  ever  so  many  compliments !” 
So  it  is  “ nicer,”  but  is  it  better  ? If  you  are  asked 
to  get  up  a bazaar,  do  it — for  Christ’s  sake,  not  for 
frolic’s  sake ; in  humility,  not  for  vainglory.  But 
do  not  think  that  the  show  and  the  glitter  and  the 
crowd  are  any  necessary  part  of  Christ’s  work. 
The  best  work,  after  all,  the  work  that  will  tell 
most  upon  the  world  you  live  in,  and  at  the  same 
time  do  most  for  your  womanhood,  is  quiet,  every- 
day work,  without  display  and  without  excitement, 
done  simply,  done  steadily,  in  imitation  of  Him 
who  went  about  doing  good. 

And  here  I cannot  forbear  one  more  earnest 
word  to  parents.  I am  persuaded  that  the  most 
serious  obstacle  which  many  a young  woman  has  to 
encounter  in  carrying  out  her  plans  of  improve- 
ment and  usefulness  is  the  opposition,  not  of  jja- 
rental  harshness,  but  of  parental  fondness.  Do 
not.  I implore  you,  fathers  and  mothers,  in  your 
anxiety  that  your  daughters  shall  enjoy  life,  per- 
suade them  to  throw  away  all  the  things  iu  life 


OCCUPATION. 


69 


that  are  worth  enjoying.  It  is  a serious  I’esponsibil- 
ity  to  take,  to  quench  a young  girl’s  enthusiasm. 
That  is  a kind  of  murder  that  will  one  day  lie 
heavy  on  the  soul.  The  enthusiasm  may  be  mis- 
directed, it  may  be  unbalanced,  but  guidance  is  a 
thousand  times  better  than  repression.  If  your 
daughter’s  plans  are  visionary,  help  her  to  make 
better  ones.  If  her  way  of  working  is  impracti- 
cable, show  her  a better  way.  But  do  not,  as  you 
value  her  womanhood — do  not,  as  you  love  her  im- 
mortal soul — hedge  up  her  way  with  criticisms  and 
objections  and  prophecies  of  failure  till,  baffled  and 
discouraged,  she  settles  down  to  a life  of  decorous 
commonplaceness,  of  indolent  indulgence  or  of  fash- 
ionable folly. 

Young  women,  I have  been  trying  to  point  you, 
not  to  any  line  of  rare  or  exceptional  achievement, 
but  to  the  work  that  lies  all  about  you — work  that 
you  need,  and  work  that  needs  you ; not  to  a path 
on  the  heights,  but  to  a path  at  your  feet.  Do  not 
despise  it  because  it  is  low.  Do  not  draw  back 
from  it  because  it  looks  monotonous.  For  it  is 
that  path  which,  followed  patiently  step  by  step, 
will  lead  you  to  the  heights — the  heights  of  woman- 


70 


WOMAlSllOOD. 


ly  character  and  influence,  the  heights  of  reverent 
homage  and  grateful  love,  the  heights  of  divine 
companionship  and  everlasting  joy. 


IV. 


ADORNMENT. 


Whose  adorning,  let  it  not  be  that  outward  adorn- 
ing of  plaiting  the  hair,  and  of  wearing  of  gold,  or  of 
putting  on  of  apparel  ; but  let  it  be  the  hidden  man  of 
the  heart,  in  that  which  is  not  corruptible,  even  the  or- 
nament of  a meek  and  quiet  spirit,  which  is  in  the 
sight  of  God  of  great  price.” — 1 Pet.  iii.  3,  4. 


HE  love  of  personal  adornment  is  an  instinct 


“*■  of  woman’s  nature  as  deep-seated,  as  universal, 
as  cliaracteristically  feminine,  as  that  other  instinct 
of  sympathy  of  which  Mungo  Park  bore  testimony 
that,  though  he  sometimes  found  it  wanting  in  man, 
he  never  appealed  to  it  in  vain  in  woman,  savage 
or  civilized,  in  any  part  of  the  globe  whither  he 
betook  himself.  And  in  its  place,  within  its  bounds, 
it  is  as  wholesome.  It  is  compounded  of  that  in- 
stinct for  the  beautiful,  the  graceful,  the  fitting, 
which  makes  the  hand  of  woman  a magician’s 
wand,  brightening  whatever  it  touches,  and  of  that 


n 


72 


WOMANHOOD. 


desire  to  please  which  makes  the  cliarm  of  her  com- 
panionship.  It  contributes  in  no  small  degree  to 
the  attracting  power  by  which  she  maintains  that 
influence  over  the  hearts  of  men  which,  rightly 
wielded,  is  a sheet-anchor  to  their  souls  upon  the 
stormy  sea  of  life. 

And  yet,  natural  as  it  is,  wholesome  as  it  may  be, 
it  is  appalling  to  think  of  what  mischief  it  is  capa- 
ble, and  with  what  destructive  power,  when  loosed 
from  its  bounds  and  allowed  to  become,  as  in  so 
many  women  it  does  become,  the  ruling  passion  of 
life,  it  rages  and  lays  waste.  Think  a moment  of 
the  sacrifices  that  are  made  upon  that  altar.  To 
this  passion  for  dress  and  for  ornament  have  been 
offered  up  personal  beauty,  health,  modesty,  social 
concord,  domestic  happiness,  the  vital  interests  of 
unborn  children,  the  integrity  of  man  and  the 
chastity  of  woman.  Yes,  it  is  through  this  passion 
— suffer  me  to  S2ieak  out  j^lainly  the  terrible  truth  : 
it  is  through  this  j)assiou  oftener  than  through  any 
other — that  woman  is  lured  from  the  ways  of  purity 
and  made  to  turn  her  back  for  ever  upon  home  and 
upon  heaven.  Faust’s  casket  of  j excels — who  shall 
count  the  Margwerites  that  it  has  slain? 

Do  you  wonder,  then,  that  jirophets  and  apostles 


ADORNMENT. 


73 


have  lifted  uj)  their  voices  in  warning  against  a 
passion  so  ruinous?  Do  you  wonder  that  men  of 
God  in  all  ages  have  echoed  these  warnings  and  en- 
larged upon  them,  sometimes  extravagantly,  some- 
times mistakenly,  but  never  without  urgent  occasion 
in  the  spectacle  of  womanhood  degraded  and  im- 
mortal souls  ensnared  in  the  meshes  of  vanity  and 
extravagance  ? You  smile,  perhaps,  at  the  Quaker 
bonnet  and  gown.  Yet  mistaken  as  they  are  in 
point  of  taste,  and  mistaken  as  they  are  in  point  of 
principle,  to  me  they  always  suggest  thoughts  of 
reverence  rather  than  of  mirth — reverence  for  tlie 
earnestness  of  purpose,  the  determined  and  effective 
revolt  against  the  chains  of  a soul-enslaving  tyr- 
anny, out  of  which  they  were  born. 

And  yet  tliey  are  a mistake.  The  whole  treat- 
ment of  this  question  of  personal  adornment  of 
which  they  are  an  embodiment  is  founded  on  a mis- 
understanding of  the  gospel,  and  aims  at  effecting 
the  impossible.  To  reject  a thing  because  it  is 
beautiful,  to  wear  a thing  because  it  is  without 
beauty,  is  an  ascetic  perversion  of  the  gosp(!l  for 
which  there  is  no  warrant  in  either  the  words  or 
the  example  of  the  Master.  Again  and  again  have 
priest  and  pastor,  entrenching  themselves  behind 


74 


WOMANHOOD. 


tliese  very  words  of  an  apostle,  lauuelied  their 
anathemas  against  gold  and  jewels,  against  silks 
and  laces,  against  even  the  bright  ribbon  or  the 
well-dressed  coil  of  hair.  Again  and  again  have 
they  built  up  upon  these  words  as  a foundation  a 
minute  and  detailed  code  of  instructions  as  to  dress- 
making, millinery  and  coiffure  to  recoil  in  ridicule 
upon  the  authors  of  them.  Again  and  again  have 
earnest  women,  in  the  ardor  of  conversion,  sick  of 
their  lifelong  bondage  of  vanity,  snatched  the  gold 
from  their  throats  and  the  feathers  from  their  bon- 
nets, only  to  react  too  often  to  greater  extremes  of 
extravagance  and  display.  For  all  these  have  been 
attempts  to  crush  down,  to  trample  upon  and  to 
tear  out  by  the  roots  a God-given  instinct ; and 
no  God-given  instinct  will  consent  to  be  so  treated. 
As  well  try  to  annihilate  one  of  Nature’s  forces. 
The  only  thing  to  be  done,  with  the  one  as  with 
the  other,  is  to  direct  it  and  to  keep  it  within 
bounds  by  the  counteracting  power  of  other  forces. 

That  is  precisely  what  Peter  aims  to  do  in  these 
noble  and  beautiful  words.  To  take  his  counsel 
as  a prohibition  of  outward  adorning,  though  it  has 
often  been  done,  is  as  absurd  as  to  take  God’s  word 
by  Hosea,  ‘‘  I will  have  mercy  and  not  sacrifice,” 


ADORNMENT. 


75 


as  a prohibition  of  the  very  ofteriugs  which  he  had 
commanded  through  Moses.  The  negative  in  either 
case  is  comparative  in  its  force.  Mercy,  and  not 
sacrifice — the  inward,  not  the  outward — is  the  es- 
sential thing  in  God’s  service.  The  hidden  man 
of  the  heart,  not  gold  and  braided  hair  and  rich 
apparel,  is  the  essential  adornment  of  womanhood. 
It  is  not  merely  that  the  words  admit  this  interpre- 
tation : they  compel  it ; for  if  they  indeed  forbid 
a woman  to  wear  any  gold  or  to  braid  her  hair, 
they  also  forbid  her  to  put  on  any  apparel. 

In  these  words,  now,  we  have  a complete  code 
of  principles  for  the  regulation  of  personal  adorn- 
ment. Of  principles,  mark  you,  not  rules : the 
gospel  does  not  deal  in  rules.  The  only  thing  here 
that  looks  like  a rule — the  prohibition  of  gold  and 
of  braids — we  have  just  seen,  is  not  a rule  at  all. 
So,  if  you  are  expecting  in  this  discourse  to  have 
an  inventory  of  what  you  should  or  should  not 
wear  or  a critique  upon  the  fashions  of  the  day,  you 
will  be  disappointed  in  your  expectation.  I want  to 
go  far  deeper : I want  to  'show  you,  if  possible,  the 
true  attitude  of  a Christian  woman  toward  this 
whole  question  of  personal  adornment.  This  I 
will  try  to  do  by  putting  before  you  four  inferences 


76 


WOMANHOOD. 


from  the  truth  here  so  exquisitely  expressed,  that 
the  true  beauty  of  womanhood  is  spiritual,  consist- 
ing not  in  elegant  attire  or  costly  ornament,  but  in 
“ the  hidden  man  of  the  heart.” 

And  here  let  me  pause  a moment  to  call  your 
attention  to  the  peculiar  significance  of  this  phrase, 
“ the  hidden  man  of  the  heart.”  You  will  notice 
that  it  describes,  not  the  person  adorned,  but  the 
adornment.  It  is,  then,  not  something  natural,  but 
something  acquired,  something  with  which  the  soul 
is  to  clothe  itself.  In  short,  the  figure  is  exactly 
the  same  which  Paul  employs  when  he  exhorts  to 
put  off  the  old  man  and  put  on  the  new  man.” 
The  hidden  man  of  the  heart  is  the  new  man  born 
of  the  Spirit.  In  other  words,  it  is  a Christian 
character,  not  any  mere  natural  sweetness  and  love- 
liness, which  is  woman’s  true  adornment. 

1.  The  first  inference  from  this  is  that  outward 
adornment  is  not  a thing  to  set  the  heart  upon. 
“ One  thing  is  needful  ” — a soul  adorned  with 
Christ’s  likeness.  Set  your  heart  upon  that.  Out- 
ward adornment  at  best  is  incidental.  It  is  no  part 
of  yourselves.  Yo  amount  of  ornament  can  make 
an  unlovely  woman  lovely,  nor  can  any  plainness 


ADORNMENT. 


77 


of  garb  conceal  the  loveliness  of  a beautiful  soul. 
You  cannot  afford  to  set  your  heart  on  anything 
but  the  essential.  Withal,  it  is  transitory  and  un- 
certain. You  cannot  afford  to  set  your  heart  upon 
anything  of  which  fortune  may,  and  time  must, 
despoil  you.  Only  the  incorruptible  is  worth 
living  for. 

It  seems  quite  obvious  to  say  that  beauty  of 
character  should  be  a woman’s  chief  care,  and  yet 
thei’e  are  no  lessons  which  men  and  women  alike 
are  so  slow  to  learn  practically  as  just  these  two — 
that  to  be  is  more  than  to  seem,  and  that  the  soul 
is  of  more  account  than  the  body.  We  are  all  the 
time  struggling  to  make  a good  show  in  the  eyes  of 
men,  who  look  only  at  the  outside,  and  are  careless 
how  we  appear  in  the  sight  of  God,  who  trieth  the 
hearts.  We  are  concerned  about  reputation  and 
indifferent  to  character,  heedless  of  realities  and 
studious  of  appearances.  So,  again,  we  devote  toil 
and  study  to  the  nourishing  and  adorning  of  the 
body,  while  the  soul  is  left  naked  and  starving. 
Surely  it  would  be  well  within  bounds  to  say  of 
multitudes  of  women  that  they  give  ten  thoughts 
to  the  clothing  of  their  persons  to  one  that  they 
give  to  the  clothing  of  their  souls.  So  long  as  this 


78 


WOMANHOOD. 


is  true,  so  long  as  a 'woman  cares  more  liow  she 
looks  than  what  she  is,  so  long  lack  of  opportunity 
is  the  only  thing  that  will  restrain  her  from  osten- 
tation and  excess  and  all  manner  of  sins  in  the 
adorning  of  her  person.  The  only  safeguard  against 
the  temptation  which  lurks  in  the  passion  for  adorn- 
ment, and  the  long  train  of  evils,  already  glanced 
at,  to  which  it  leads,  is  to  learn  to  estimate  it  at  its 
true  worth.  But,  since  all  worth  is  comparative, 
that  can  be  done  only  by  putting  and  keeping  it 
by  the  side  of  an  object  infinitely  higher.  Till 
that  is  done  even  Quaker  drab  affords,  in  choice  of 
material  and  shade  and  niceties  of  plait  and  fold,  a 
field  in  which  the  pride  and  ostentation  of  a worldly 
heart  can  find  scope  enough.  Oh,  could  I bring 
before  you  in  its  perfect  loveliness,  and  could  your 
eyes  once  be  opened  to  behold  in  its  true  radiance, 
the  matchless  vision  of  a beautiful  soul,  how  would 
it  cheapen  for  you  the  diamonds  and  laces  which 
are  your  pride  if  you  have  them,  your  envy  if  you 
have  them  not ! 

Do  you  ask,  then.  How  shall  I know  whether 
or  not  my  heart  is  set  on  outward  adorning?  Put 
to  yourself  such  questions  as  these ; put  them  hon- 
esthq  and  face  the  answers  fairly  and  courageously  : 


ADORNMENT. 


79 


To  which  do  I give  most  heed,  the  adorning  of  my 
person  or  the  perfecting  of  my  character?  Which 
is  first  in  my  thought  in  the  morning  and  last  at 
nisht  ? Which  gives  me  the  keener  sense  of  Iminil- 
iation — to  be  outshone  in  elegance  of  wardrobe  or 
to  be  surpassed  in  meekness,  gentleness,  unselfish- 
ness? Which  causes  the  livelier  chagrin — to  be 
betrayed  into  a falsehood  or  a fit  of  passion,  or  to 
be  seen  in  an  old-fashioned  bonnet  or  an  ill-fitting 
dress?  And  be  assured,  if  the  answer  to  these 
questions  shows  you  that  your  adorning,  the  adorn- 
ing oil  which  you  have  set  your  heart,  is  the  out- 
ward rather  than  the  inward,  you  are  fundamentally 
wrong,  and  you  never  can  begin  to  be  right  till  this 
is  reversed. 

Begin  to  be  right,  I say.  It  might,  indeed,  seem 
that  when  you  have  reversed  these  two  and  set  them 
in  their  true  relation  you  would  make  no  mistake. 
And  so  it  would  be  if  we  were  always  logical,  al- 
ways ready  to  see  the  true  bearings  of  all  that  we 
do.  But  the  reverse  is  the  case.  AYc  act  on  a 
strange  mingling  of  Christian  and  worldly  motives; 
we  make  strange  compromises ; we  let  the  world, 
which  has  no  sympathy  with  our  motives  or  aims, 
do  our  thinking  for  us  in  matters  of  detail  in  the 


80 


WOMANHOOD. 


most  curious  way.  Let  me,  therefore,  follow  up 
this  first  inference  with  others  which  will  make 
the  line  of  right  conduct  still  plainer. 

2.  Observe,  then,  in  the  second  place,  that  out- 
ward adornment  can  never  be  made  to  take  the 
place  of  graces  of  character  or  to  conceal  their  lack. 
Do  not  think  that  if  you  are  frivolous  or  selfish  or 
vain  or  insincere  you  can  offset  these  things  by  any 
outward  charms,  whether  of  face  or  of  attire.  In 
the  first  place,  if  you  attempt  it,  you  attempt  a fraud 
of  the  worst  kind.  The  bridge-builder  who  dis- 
guises rotten  timber  with  a coat  of  paint,  to  give 
way  under  a precious  freight  of  human  lives,  is  not 
more  guilty  than  the  woman  who  seelvs  to  win  by 
arts  of  dress  and  manner  a popularity  and  an  influ- 
ence which  belong  only  to  I’eal  worth,  and  which,  so 
far  as  she  gains  them,  she  can  use  only  for  evil. 
You  hav^e  no  right  to  try  to  gain  ascendency  in  that 
way.  Least  of  all  have  you  a right  to  try  to  wiu 
in  that  way  the  heart  of  a man.  If  you  try  it 
and  succeed,  you  have  repeated  the  ti’eachery  of 
Delilah. 

But,  still  further,  you  attempt  a fraud  which  will 
certainly  be  found  out.  With  the  shallow  and  un- 
thinking these  arts  may  be  partially  successful ; 


ADORNMENT. 


81 


with  the  thoughtful  aud  discerning  they  are  sure  to 
fail.  The  devices  of  the  toilet  may  disguise  a bad 
complexion,  but  all  the  arts  of  a Jezebel  cannot  re- 
move from  her  countenance  the  traces  of  pride  and 
malignity  or  paint  there  the  sweet  motherliness  of 
a Hannah  or  the  tender  reverence  of  a Mary.  Nay, 
more,  to  one  who  looks  beneath  the  outward  show, 
the  very  contrast  between  the  adorning  without  and 
the  deformity  within  makes  the  latter  the  more  re- 
pulsive. “ As  a jewel  of  gold  in  a swine’s  snout, 
so  is  a fair  woman  who  is  without  discretion.”  It 
is  not  an  attractive  metaphor,  but  it  is  a strong  one. 
It  is  worth  your  while  to  pause  upon  it  long  enough 
to  bring  the  picture  vividly  before  your  mind’s  eye, 
for  it  is  God’s  picture  of  what  he  sees  when  he 
looks  upon  a woman  fair  of  face  and  tasteful  of  at- 
tire, but  with  mind  unfurnished  and  heart  untrained ; 
and  not  only  he,  but  all  who  are  in  deep  sympathy 
with  him.  To  such  the  beautiful  raiment  is  itself 
defiled  by  the  inward  deformity,  as  the  ring  of  gold 
imparts  no  beauty  to  the  swinish  body,  but  loses 
its  own  beauty  against  such  a setting. 

3.  But  I hasten  on  to  a third  inference — this, 
namely : that,  since  beauty  of  character  is  the  one 

essential  thing,  outward  adornment  must  never  be 
6 


82 


WOMANHOOD. 


sought  at  the  expense,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
of  that  inner  beauty. 

Here  we  find  the  true  regulating  principle  of 
dress.  If  the  ornament  you  put  on  is  put  on  in  a 
spirit  of  ostentation  to  display  your  wealth  or  in  a 
spirit  of  vainglory  to  eclipse  others,  if  the  coveted 
elegance  of  attire  is  to  be  procured  only  at  the  cost 
of  a husband’s  or  a fatheris  excessive  toil  or  by  in- 
curring the  dishonor  of  unpaid  debts  or  by  hard- 
ening your  heart  against  your  suffering  fellow-men 
— and,  alas  ! of  how  much  of  the  beautiful  adorn- 
ment that  dazzles  us  in  any  brilliant  company  does 
this  tell  the  tale ! — then  you  have  bought  your 
momentary  gleam  of  beauty  at  far  too  dear  a price. 
You  cannot  afford  to  purchase  an  hour’s  bravery  at 
the  cost  of  one  trait  of  ingenuous  and  noble  wo- 
manhood. The  sequel  to  the  adornment  so  pur- 
chased is  told  by  the  apostle  James  in  the  following 
words  of  scorching  severity  : “ Your  riches  are  cor- 
rupted and  your  garments  are  moth-eaten.  Your 
gold  and  silver  is  cankered ; and  tlie  rust  of  them 
shall  be  a witness  against  you  and  shall  eat  your 
flesh  as  it  were  fire.”  The  adornment  so  purchased 
is  not  only  perishable,  but  in  perishing  it  will 
leave  a sting  and  a loss  behind  it,  and  will  witness 


ADORNMENT. 


8.3 


agalust  the  soul  that  has  been  marred  and  stained 
to  procure  it. 

And  here  comes  up  the  whole  question  o^ fashion. 
Shall  you  follow  it?  It  is  an  easy  thing  to  inveigh 
against  fashion  as  though  it  were  always  and  wholly 
of  the  devil,  but  that  is  just  a way  of  dodging  a 
really  intricate  question.  What  is  fashion  ? Sim- 
ply what  other  people  do.  Now,  it  is  sometimes  a 
good  thing  to  do  what  other  people  do,  and  some- 
times it  is  not.  There  is  no  virtue  in  mere  singu- 
larity. In  a general  way,  we  may  say  singularity 
is  a thing  to  be  shunned.  It  is  not  worth  while  to 
make  one’s  self  conspicuous  without  good  cause. 
But  sometimes  conspicuousness  is  unavoidable. 
“ Thou  shalt  not  follow  a multitude  to  do  evil.’’ 
Lot  could  not  afford  to  follow  the  fashions  in  So- 
dom, nor  Daniel  and  his  three  friends  in  Babylon. 
The  truth  is  it  is  not  fashion,  but  the  tyranny  of 
fashion,  which  is  evil.  It  is  well  to  take  counsel 
of  fashion,  but  it  should  be  always  with  a reserved 
right  to  obey  or  to  disobey  her  dictates  according  as 
they  may  or  may  not  be  followed  without  cost  to 
your  womanhood.  The  woman  who  has  tacitly  put 
herself  under  bonds  blindly  to  obey  the  behests  of 
fashion,  even  in  matters  of  dress,  has  sold  her  souk 


84 


WOMANHOOD. 


One  lias  but  to  consider  who  the  leaders  of  fashion 
are,  and  what  are  their  motives  and  views  of  life, 
to  see  how  impossible  it  must  be  for  a true  child  of 
God  blindly  to  follow  them. 

Sometimes  fashion  will  demand  of  you  a pecuni- 
ary outlay  which  will  close  your  ears  to  the  appeal 
of  Christ’s  Church  aud  your  eyes  to  the  outstretched 
hand  of  his  poor.  Heed  not  the  demand.  Indeed, 
the  very  changes  of  fashion  are  so  incessant  tliat  to 
keep  pace  with  them  is  possible  only  to  the  amplest 
fortune,  and  scarcely  pardonable  even  to  that. 

Sometimes  fashion  will  demand  of  you  a style  of 
adornment  which  will  im25eril  health.  Eesist  the 
demand  uncompromisingly.  “ What ! know  ye  not 
that  your  body  is  the  temj^le  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
which  is  in  you,  which  ye  have  of  God ; and  ye  are 
not  your  own  ?” 

Sometimes  it  will  demand  that  which  will  compro- 
mise modesty.  Defend  that  brightest  jewel  of  your 
womanhood  at  any  cost.  INIuch  as  I honor  Queen 
Victoria  as  a true  and  noble  woman,  I confess  that 
in  one  thing  I hold  in  higher  honor  Miss  Antoi- 
nette Sterling,  who,  when  invited  to  sing  before  the 
queen,  on  learning  that  it  was  imperative  that  she 
appear  in  a costume  from  which  her  modesty  re- 


ADORNMENT. 


85 


coiled,  chose  rather  to  decline  the  proffered  honor. 
I know  “ to  the  pure  all  things  are  pure,”  but  how 
if  that  which  is  without  a thought  of  impurity  in 
the  wearer  bring  a suggestion  of  impure  thought  to 
some  beholder  ? 

Sometimes  fashion  will  demand  of  you  an  outlay 
of  time  in  arranging  and  adorning  which  will  leave 
little  to  spare  for  the  adorning  of  the  soul.  Con- 
sent not  to  the  robbery.  “ The  time  is  short.  It 
remaineth  that  they  . . . that  use  this  world  [be] 
as  not  abusing  it ; for  the  fashion  of  this  world  pass- 
eth  away.”  Life  is  too  earnest  and  its  hours  are 
too  few  to  be  given  up  to  such  things  as  dressing 
the  hair  and  polishing  the  nails. 

There  is  neither  common  sense  nor  piety  in  refus- 
ing to  wear  a thing  just  because  it  is  pretty  or  be- 
cause it  is  fashionable  ; there  are  both  common  sense 
and  piety  in  refusing  to  wear  it  because  it  is  too 
costly  in  money  or  in  time,  because  it  is  indelicate 
or  because  it  is  injurious  to  health  or  to  character. 
And  if  this  refusal  to  barter  away  the  incorruptible 
garments  of  the  soul  for  that  which  must  soon  be 
food  for  the  moth  impart  to  your  attire  a certain 
stamp  of  singularity,  accept  it  cheerfully — yea, 
proudly — as  a proof  that  you  are  an  alien  in  this 


86 


W03IANH00D. 


world  and  as  a badge  of  your  citizenship  in  a 
better  country. 

4.  This  brings  me  to  one  more — the  last — in- 
ference from  Peter’s  words.  Not  ofdy  should  the 
outward  adorning  be  without  cost  to  beauty  of 
character  : it  should  in  some  real  degree  reflect  and 
as  it  were  express  that  beauty. 

Do  you  say,  How  shall  this  be?  Nay,  rather, 
how  shall  it  not  be  if  the  outward  adorning  be  of 
your  own  choosing  and  ordering,  and  if  the  inner 
beauty  be  there  ? Do  not  the  dress  and  the  orna- 
ment express  the  woman  ? If  she  is  vulgar,  do  they 
not  show  it  ? If  she  is  refined,  do  they  not  pro- 
claim it  ? And  so,  if  she  be  inwardly  clothed  upon 
with  that  ornament  of  a meek  and  quiet  spirit  which 
is  in  the  sight  of  God  of  great  price,  will  it  not 
prompt  her  to  choose  for  herself  raiment  which  in 
its  subdued  dignity,  its  freedom  from  vain  display 
and  startling  extremes,  its  appropriateness  to  her 
station  and  circumstances,  shall  so  harmonize  with 
that  meekness  and  quietness  as  to  convey  the  im- 
pression of  them  to  all  beholders  ? 

And  here,  again,  we  touch  upon  a reason  for 
holding  very  loosely  by  the  behests  of  fashion.  The 
tendency  of  a servile  following  of  fashion  is  to  de- 


ADORNMENT. 


87 


stroy  all  iudividuality  in  dress  and  adornment.  This 
is  a loss  serious  enough  from  an  aesthetic  point  of 
view.  Pity  ’tis  to  see  a company  of  women  the 
charms  of  whose  costumes  should  be  as  various  and 
variously  expressive  as  the  flowers  of  a well-kept 
garden,  turned  by  some  freak  of  fashion  into  one 
great  bed  of  sunflowers  or  asters  or  scarlet  gerani- 
ums, but  in  a moral  point  of  view  the  loss  is  more 
serious  still.  That  your  attire  should  express,  not 
your  own  modesty  and  dignity,  your  own  maidenly 
reserve  and  Christian  humility,  but  the  vulgar 
pride  of  some  rich  parvenu  or  titled  adventuress,  or 
the  bold  instincts  of  some  king’s  mistress,  from 
whom  you  have  unwittingly  borrowed  it — think 
you  there  is  no  loss  to  your  womanhood  in  that? 
The  heaoming : that  is  the  one  word  which  expresses 
what  is  to  be  sought  after  in  adornment.  But  the 
highest  ideal  of  the  becoming  is  realized  only  when 
the  adornment  answers  not  simply  to  the  face  and 
figure,  but  to  the  character  and  graces  of  the  soul 
within.  See  how  these  two,  the  outward  and  the 
inward  clothing,  blend  and  affect  one  another  in 
the  kindred  exhortation  of  the  apostle  Paul  on  this 
same  subject  of  adornment : “ I will  therefore  . . . 
that  women  adorn  themselves  in  modest  apparel, 


88 


WOMANHOOD. 


with  shamefacedness  and  sobriety ; not  with  broid- 
ered  hair  or  gold  or  pearls  or  costly  array ; but 
(which  becometh  women  professing  godliness)  with 
good  works.” 

These,  then,  are  the  principles  of  female  adorn- 
ment which  may  be  drawn  from  this  wise  word  of 
a wise  teacher.  Young  women  standing  on  the 
threshold  of  life  to-day,  with  so  much  in  the  pomp 
and  vanity  of  the  world  to  dazzle  your  eyes  and  ap- 
peal with  power  to  your  woman’s  heart,  if  you  will 
take  these  principles  with  you  and  faithfully  apply 
them  in  all  your  adorning,  you  will  not  go  astray ; 
but,  whether  silks  and  jewels  are  at  your  command 
or  you  wear  the  garb  of  poverty,  you  will  be  well 
arrayed  without  and  within. 

And  see  by  what  great  motives  the  apostle  urges 
you  to  this  manner  of  adornment.  They  are  the 
two  greatest  thoughts  that  can  ever  take  possession 
of  your  souls — eternity  and  God.  “ Whose  adorn- 
ing let  it  be  the  hidden  man  of  the  heart,  in  that 
which  is  not  corruptible,  even  the  ornament  of  a 
meek  and  quiet  spirit,  which  is  in  the  sight  of  God 
of  great  price.” 

“ In  that  which  is  not  corruptible.”  Is  it  not 


ADORNMENT. 


89 


melancholy  so  to  squander  in  the  cutting  and  fash- 
ioning of  fabrics  that  will  soon  be  rags,  and  in  the 
bedecking  with  gold  and  gems  of  a body  that  will 
soon  be  dust,  the  time,  the  thought,  the  treasure,  of 
a life  that  presently  will  be  gone,  that  the  imperish- 
able beauty  of  a true  womanhood  shall  be  missed 
for  ever  ? The  old  monks  sometimes  used  to  keep 
upon  their  tables  a skull  that  they  might  ever  be 
reminded  of  the  end  to  which  they  must  soon  come. 
I would  have  you  keep  no  such  death’s-head  upon 
your  toilet-table,  yet  I could  wish  that  some  time, 
as  you  stand  before  your  mirror  in  your  most  beau- 
tiful array  and  your  pulse  bounds  at  the  bright  re- 
flection, there  might  come  up  before  you  the  vision 
of  a skeleton  laid  away  in  its  narrow  house  with  all 
the  bravery  of  life  about  it — the  gold  rings  loosely 
encircling  the  bony  fingers,  dhe  jeweled  necklace 
losing  itself  in  the  cavern  of  the  ribs,  and  braids 
of  hair  carefully  twined  about  the  skull — and  that 
in  all  earnestness  you  might  ask  yourself  this  ques- 
tion : When  I come  to  that,  shall  I still  have  a 
beauty  which  the  grave  cannot  swallow  up,  and 
which  shall  shine  and  shine  above  the  stars? 

And  the  other  thought  is  the  thought  of  God. 
Woman  adorns  herself  in  part  for  her  own  eyes. 


90 


WOMANHOOD. 


but  chiefly  for  the  eyes  of  others — for  the  eyes  of 
her  husband  first  of  all,  if  she  be  a true  wife ; if 
she  be  a maideu,  for  the  eyes  of  suitors  and  com- 
panions. I do  not  chide  her : it  is  nature.  The 
love  of  approbation  we  shall  none  of  us  ever  out- 
grow. What  is  of  moment  is  that  it  be  rightly 
directed,  and  that  we  seek  above  all  the  approba- 
tion which  is  most  worth  having.  What,  then,  if, 
while  dressing  to  please  others,  you  take  vdth  you 
this  thought — that  you  will  dress  first  of  all  to 
please  God? 

It  is  a pithy  suggestion  of  Leighton’s  upon  this 
passage,  one  which  w’ould  need  but  the  turn  of  a 
phrase  or  two  to  bring  it  close  home  to  your  expe- 
rience ; “ Some  who  are  court-bred  will  send  for 
the  masters  of  fashions.  Though  they  live  not  in 
the  court,  and  though  the  peasants  think  them 
strange  dresses,  yet  they  regard  not  that,  but  use 
them  as  finest  and  best.  Care  not  what  the  world 
say ; you  are  not  to  stay  long  with  them.  Desire 
to  have  both  fashions  and  stuflFs  from  court — from 
heaven.” 

But  if  you  thus  dress  to  please  God,  you  will 
very  soon  come  to  see  that  the  plaiting  of  the  hair, 
the  wearing  of  gold,  the  putting  on  of  apparel,  are 


ADORNMENT. 


91 


worth  very  little  in  his  eyes  even  when  they  are 
most  fitting,  but  that  there  is  one  ornament  which 
is  indeed  beautiful  and  precious  to  him,  the  orna- 
ment of  a spirit  fashioned  in  the  likeness  of  Him 
who  was  meek  and  lowly  in  heart.  “Of  great 
price  ” indeed  is  that  ox'uament  to  him,  for  he  paid 
a great  price,  even  the  precious  blood  of  Christ, 
that  you  might  win  and  wear  it.  And  more  and 
more  you  will  come  yourself  to  put  the  same  rela- 
tive value  upon  these.  And  just  as  your  attire 
conforms  itself  more  and  more  to  the  taste  of  one 
whom  you  greatly  love  and  greatly  desire  to  please, 
so,  as  you  strive  to  adorn  yourself  for  God’s  eye, 
you  will  grow  insensibly  into  the  fullness  of  a 
beauty  on  which  that  eye  will  rest  for  ever  with 
joy  and  love. 


V. 

INFLUENCE. 


“And  David  said  to  Abigail,  Blessed  be  the  Lord 
God  of  Israel,  whieh  sent  thee  this  day  to  meet  me ; 
and  blessed  be  thy  advice,  and  blessed  be  thou,  whieh 
hast  kept  me  this  day  from  coming  to  shed  blood,  and 
from  avenging  myself  with  mine  own  hand.” — 1 Saji. 
XXV.  32,  33. 

T NEED  not  recall  to  you  in  detail  the  story 
from  which  these  words  are  taken.  While 
David,  fleeing  from  the  anger  of  Saul,  was  of 
necessity  leading  more  or  less  the  life  of  an  out- 
law and  a freebooter  in  the  hills  of  Southern 
Judaea,  he  asked  supplies  on  one  occasion  from 
Nabal,  a wealthy  sheep-farmer,  whose  property  he 
and  his  armed  band  had  not  only  respected,  but 
often  guarded  from  loss.  His  request  being  churl- 
ishly and  insultingly  denied,  David  instantly,  with 
the  rashness  of  youth  and  the  instincts  of  an  out- 
law as  yet  undisciplined  by  the  responsibilities  of 

92 


INFLUENCE. 


93 


Ills  later  years,  vowed  a summary  vengeance  which 
should  leave  not  a man  of  Nabal’s  household  alive 
by  the  dawn  of  another  morning.  Hearing  of  his 
design,  Abigail,  Habal’s  wife,  with  a loyalty  to  her 
husband  the  more  commendable  in  that  he  was  so 
little  worthy  of  it,  set  out  forthwith  and  met  Da- 
vid, already  on  the  march  with  his  retainers  to 
fulfill  his  threat.  With  a woman’s  gentleness  and 
consummate  tact,  and,  better  still,  wdth  a woman’s 
skill  in  appealing  to  David’s  better  nature  and 
arousing  his  slumbering  conscience,  she  speedily 
calmed  his  passion,  persuaded  him  to  recall  his 
rash  vow,  and,  having  thns  brought  him  to  him- 
self, drew  from  him  this  warm  acknowdedgment 
of  the  timeliness  and  salutariness  of  the  interfer- 
ence which  had  held  him  back  from  a deed  of 
folly  and  saved  him  from  the  pangs  of  self- 
reproach  for  causeless  shedding  of  blood.  The 
words  are  a tribute  to  woman’s  influence  which 
may  fittingly  introduce  us  to  the  consideration 
of  this  theme. 

The  theme  leads  us  back  naturally  to  the  point 
from  which  we  started  in  our  study  of  ideal  wo- 
manhood— namely,  to  the  idea  of  helpfulness,  and 


94 


WOMANHOOD. 


particularly  of  helpfulness  to  man,  as  the  divine 
end  in  the  creation  of  woman.  Though  we  then 
spoke  of  this  divine  intent  as  determining  the 
true  ideal  of  womanhood,  we  did  not  enter,  save 
incidentally,  into  the  question  of  the  nature  of  that 
helpfulness.  So  much  depends  on  a right  under- 
standing of  this,  so  much  is  lost  through  the  fail- 
ure of  women  to  appreciate  the  peculiar  power 
which  God  has  placed  in  their  hands,  and  to  use 
it  for  the  strengthening  and  uplifting  of  man  and 
the  renovating  of  society,  that  I cannot  conclude 
this  course  of  sermons  more  fittingly  than  by  an 
earnest  word  to  you  upon  this  theme. 

The  truth  which  I would  bring  home  to  you  is, 
briefly,  this : that  the  help — not,  indeed,  the  only 
help,  but  the  essential,  the  peculiar,  help — which 
woman  is  to  give  to  man  is  not  in  working  with 
him,  but  in  working  through  him.  The  relation 
of  man  to  woman  is  not  the  relation  of  the  right 
arm  to  the  left : rather  does  it  resemble  the  rela- 
tion of  the  arm  to  the  nerves  that  move  and  guide 
it.  Despite  all  broadening  of  woman’s  sphere  and 
opening  new  doors  to  woman’s  ambition,  it  will 
remain  true,  as  it  has  been  true  hitherto,  that  the 
active  work  of  the  world,  the  pioneer  work,  the 


INFLUENCE. 


05 


constructive  work,  the  work  of  exploring  the  con- 
tinents, clearing  the  forests,  building  the  railways, 
inventing  the  machinery,  conducting  the  commerce, 
developing  the  arts,  managing  the  campaigns,  mak- 
ing the  laws,  will  be  chiefly  done  by  men.  I do 
not  disparage  the  direct  share  of  woman  in  man’s 
work.  That  share  is  often  most  valuable.  That 
man  is  certainly  to  be  accounted  happy  whose  work 
is  of  such  a kind  that  his  wife  can  work  with  him 
and  contribute  directly  to  his  success.  Neverthe- 
less, even  so,  this  is  not  her  distinctive  work.  The 
highest  work  of  woman  is  not  that  which  she  does  at 
man’s  side,  in  the  fleld,  in  the  store,  in  the  Church, 
even,  nor  yet  that  share  of  his  burden  which  she 
takes  in  managing  his  house  and  rearing  his  chil- 
dren : it  is  that  which  she  does  by  imparting  to 
man  himself  an  inspiration  and  a guidance  in  his 
labors  without  which  he  seldom  or  never  attains 
his  highest  possibilities.  Varied  as  her  gifts  may 
be,  versatile  as  she  may  be  in  her  adaptability  to 
different  sorts  of  work,  valuable  as  her  direct  con- 
tributions undoubtedly  are  to  the  sum  of  human 
achievement,  beautiful  as  may  be  the  results  of 
her  efforts  in  many  fields,  the  peculiar  power 
of  woman  as  woman — a power  which  she  can 


96 


WOMANHOOD. 


never  abdicate,  though  she  may  fatally  abuse  it 
— is  a power  of  influence. 

To  illustrate.  It  is  recorded  of  Lady  Hamilton, 
the  wife  of  Sir  William  Hamilton,  that  she  Avas  of 
the  greatest  assistance  to  her  husband  in  preparing 
his  lectures,  collecting  and  arranging  material,  and 
often  sitting  by  his  side  all  night  to  copy  his  almost 
illegible  notes  in  a fair  hand.  But  it  is  also  said  of 
her  that  she  had  the  poAver  of  keeping  her  husband 
up  to  what  he  had  to  do  and  OA'ercoming  a certain 
learned  indolence  to  which  he  Avas  prone.  The  first 
of  these  was  a great  service,  surely,  but  it  was  one 
which  a hired  clerk  could  haA’’e  rendered.  The 
second  was  a greater,  and  it  was  one  Avhich  only  a 
woman,  and  she  a woman  Avho  loA'cd  him  and 
whom  he  loved,  could  do. 

Influence  is  something  we  all  possess  in  A^ary- 
ing  degrees,  and  all  of  us  in  larger  degree  than  we 
dream  ; but  woman’s  influence  is  a thing  by  itself, 
a force  in  human  life  mighty,  measureless,  winning 
and  losing  battles,  rearing  and  ruining  empires, 
turning  the  tides  of  history  and  moulding  the 
forms  of  civilization.  An  Esther  pleads,  and  a 
doomed  nation  is  delivered ; a Catherine  de’  Medi- 
cis  urges,  and  Protestantism  in  Fi-ance  receiA^es  its 


INFLUENCE. 


97 


death-blow ; the  women  of  Rome  become  dissolute 
and  depraved,  while  the  women  of  Germany  retain 
their  purity  and  dignity,  and  the  pride  of  the  Im- 
perial City  is  humbled  by  the  irresistible  onset  of 
the  barbarians  of  the  North. 

Study  the  works  of  the  great  masters  of  poetry 
and  fiction,  and  you  will  find  it  the  rare  exception 
that  a woman’s  influence  is  not  the  controlling  force 
upon  which,  for  good  or  ill,  the  catastrophe  turns. 
Ruskiu  thus  sums  up,  for  instance,  the  teaching  of 
the  great  master,  Shakespeare ; “ The  catastrophe  of 
every  play  is  caused  always  by  the  folly  or  fault  of 
a man ; the  redemption,  if  there  be  any,  is  by  the 
wisdom  and  virtue  of  a woman,  and,  failing  that, 
there  is  none  ‘‘Among  all  the  principal  figures  in 
Shakespeare’s  plays  there  is  only  one  weak  woman 
— Ophelia ; and  it  is  because  she  fails  Hamlet  at 
the  critical  moment,  and  is  not,  and  cannot  in  her 
nature  be,  a guide  to  him  when  he  needs  her  most, 
that  all  the  bitter  catastrophe  follows.  Finally, 
though  there  are  three  wicked  women  among  the 
principal  figures — Lady  MaObeth,  Regan  and  Gon- 
eril — they  are  felt  at  once  to  be  frightful  exceptions 
to  the  ordinary  laws  of  life,  fatal  in  their  influence 
also  in  proportion  to  the  power  for  good  which  they 


98 


WOMANHOOD. 


liave  abandoned.  Such  in  broad  light  is  Shake- 
speare’s testimony  to  the  position  and  character  of 
women  in  human  life.  He  represents  them  as  in- 
fallibly faithful  and  wise  counselors,  incorruptibly 
just  and  pure  examples,  strong  always  to  sanctify 
even  where  they  cannot  save. 

If,  now,  we  inquire  how  this  peculiar  power  of 
womanhood  is  exercised,  we  shall  find  the  answer 
at  least  threefold : 

First  of  all,  it  is  the  power  of  example.  There  is 
that  in  a pure  and  lofty  womanhood  which  by  its 
very  presence  inspires  reverence,  rebukes  sin  and 
attracts  toward  the  goodness  which  it  reveals. 
There  is  something  in  the  power  of  a true  woman 
strong  in  the  elements  of  a really  noble  woman- 
hood to  subdue,  to  hold  in  check  by  her  mere 
presence,  coarse,  brutal,  even  savage,  men,  which 
can  be  likened  to  nothing  so  much  as  to  that  innate 
majesty  of  Christ  before  which  in  tlie  garden  the 
rabble,  which  had  come  out  with  swords  and  staves 
to  take  him,  reeled  backward  and  fell  to  the  ground. 
When  the  fierce  Koordish  robber  Ghewergis  con- 
fronted Miss  Fiske  and  insolently  demanded  that 
she  surrender  his  daughter’s  clothes,  only  to  slink 


INFLUENCE. 


99 


away  cowed  and  ashamed  before  her  quiet  rebuke, 
and  later  to  return  a convicted  sinner  crying  to  God 
for  forgiveness  of  his  wicked  life,  the  power  that 
broke  his  hard  heart  and  brought  him  to  the  foot 
of  the  cross  was  the  power  of  the  Holy  Sjiirit;  but 
the  instrument  which  the  Spirit  used,  the  thing 
which  shamed  him,  and  which  cowed  him  as  a 
company  of  soldiers  armed  to  the  teeth  would  never 
have  cowed  him,  was  the  simple  dignity  of  Miss 
Fiske’s  womanhood,  before  which  he,  a fierce  ban- 
dit with  no  Western  notions  of  gallantry,  but  only 
an  Oriental’s  contempt  for  woman  as  he  had  known 
her,  quailed  as  before  an  apparition  from  another 
world.  With  no  other  armor  than  their  own  woman- 
hood women  have  entered  into  the  midst  of  howling 
mobs — as  did  Miss  Marsh,  the  English  philanthro- 
pist, at  the  Sydenham  riot — and  have  made  them  dis- 
perse in  peace.  We  have  ourselves  in  recent  years 
seen  this  power  put  to  the  test  with  the  most  won- 
derful results  in  the  women’s  temperance  crusade. 

Nor  is  it  by  men  only  that  it  is  felt : this  power  of 
womanly  character  is  quite  as  marked  over  the  de- 
graded and  abandoned  of  woman’s  own  sex.  Through 
this  alone  Mrs.  Fry  wrought  the  wonderful  trans- 
formation in  the  female  wards  of  the  English 


100 


WOMANHOOD. 


prisons.  There  are  women  who  can  enter  haunts 
of  shame  in  which  a man  would  be  worse  than 
powerless,  and  by  the  spell  of  their  own  purity 
and  gentleness  and  tenderness  can  lay  hold  at  times 
even  of  those  most  hopelessly  abandoned  of  human 
creatures  and  draw  them  to  seek  again  their  own 
lost  womanhood. 

“This  is  my  lady’s  praise: 

Shame  before  her  is  shamed ; 

Hate  cannot  hate  repeat. 

She  is  so  pure  of  ways 
There  is  no  sin  is  named 
But  falls  before  her  feet, 

Because  she  is  so  frankly  free, 

So  tender  and  so  good  to  see, 

Becaiise  she  is  so  sweet.” 

Herein  lies  the  supreme  power  of  a mother. 
More  than  in  all  the  instruction  she  gives,  more 
than  in  all  the  counsels  she  imparts,  more  than  in 
all  the  authority  she  exercises,  it  is  the  power  of 
purity,  of  truth,  of  goodness,  of  devotion,  incar- 
nate in  her  womanhood,  which  moulds  the  charac- 
ter of  her  sons  and  to  every  man  who  has  had  for 
a mother  a true  woman  makes  the  name  ‘‘  mother  ” 
a spell  from  which  he  can  never  break  away  till 


INFLUENCE. 


101 


the  last  spark  of  manhood  is  extinguished  and  lie 
sinks  to  the  level  of  a fiend.  It  was  this  power, 
outweighing  all  the  arguments  of  philosophy  and 
all  the  evil  influences  of  a sorely-tempted  life, 
which  caused  Calhoun  to  say  that  the  one  thing 
that  had  prevented  him  from  becoming  a skeptic 
was  the  memory  of  the  time  when  his  mother 
used  to  make  him  kneel  by  her  side  and  teach 
him  to  say,  “Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven.” 

In  this,  too,  lies  the  greatest  power  of  a wife.  It 
is  in  what  his  wife  is,  far  more  than  in  all  that  she 
does,  measureless  as  that  may  be,  that  the  husband 
of  a true  woman  rejoices.  It  is  by  the  chastening, 
refining,  transforming,  uplifting  influence  of  her 
own  womanly  character  more  than  by  all  else  that 
“ she  will  do  him  good,  and  not  evil,  all  the  days 
of  her  life.”  This  was  beautifully  expressed  by 
De  Tocqueville  in  his  tribute  to  his  wife,  whom  he 
devotedly  loved : “ When  I say  or  do  a thing  which 
seems  to  me  to  be  perfectly  right,  I read  immedi- 
ately in  Maine’s  countenance  an  expression  of  proud 
satisfaction  which  elevates  me.  And  so,  when  my 
conscience  reproaches  me,  her  face  instantly  clouds 
over.  Although  I have  great  power  over  her  mind, 
I see  with  pleasure  that  she  awes  me ; and  so  long 


IU2 


WOiMANHOOl). 


as  I love  her  as  I do  now  I am  sure  I shall  never 
allow  myself  to  be  drawn  into  anything  that  is 
wrong.’’ 

Do  not  think,  however,  young  women,  that  it  is 
only  as  wives  and  mothers  that  you  will  have  this 
influence : it  is  yours  now  so  far  as  you  have  the 
elements  of  character  on  which  it  is  based  ; and  if 
you  have  them  not,  you  are  like  lighthouses  whose 
lights  are  gone  out — the  cause  of  many  a shipwreck 
that  you  ought  to  have  hindered.  There  is  in  every 
man,  old  or  young,  an  instinct  of  homage  to  true 
womanhood  which  causes  him,  wherever  he  meets 
it,  to  respond  to  its  power.  Do  you  know  how 
largely  the  young  men  whom  you  meet  socially  are 
what  you  make  them  ? If  they  content  themselves 
with  low  moral  standards,  if  they  bear  themselves 
toward  you  with  easy  and  sometimes  rude  familiar- 
ity rathei’  than  with  deferential  respect,  if  tliey  are 
absorbed  in  worldly  plans  and  a vulgar  pursuit  of 
gain,  if  they  fall  an  easy  prey  to  temptations  to 
dissipation, — you  are  largely  responsible.  There 
are  few  questions  more  worthy  of  your  cai’eful 
thought  than  the  question  for  lohat  young  men  seek 
your  society.  Are  they  simply  fascinated  by  a 
pretty  face,  a girlish  figure,  a bright  ribbon,  the 


INFL  UENCE. 


103 


music  of  a silvery  laugh  and  the  piquancy  of  co- 
quettish arts — the  old,  old  fascination  of  sex  alone 
— or  are  they  drawn  by  the  spell  of  womanly  mod- 
(isty  and  dignity,  of  womanly  depth  and  earnest- 
ness of  purpose,  of  womanly  beauty  of  soul? 

But,  again,  woman’s  influence  is  exerted  in  coun- 
sel as  well  as  in  character.  Let  me  recall  once 
more  a single  phrase  from  Buskin’s  comment  upon 
Shakespeare,  already  quoted — that  in  every  play 
“ the  redemption  is  by  the  wisdom  and  virtue  of  a 
woman.” 

Every  man  whom  Heaven  has  blessed  with  that 
good  gift,  a discreet  wife,  knows  the  value — the  all- 
but  indispensability,  indeed — of  a woman’s  coun- 
sels. Men,  it  is  true,  are  apt  to  claim  wisdom  as 
their  gift,  and,  with  justice,  I think,  so  far  as  power 
of  abstract  reasoning  is  concerned ; but  in  dealing 
with  the  daily  problems  of  life,  in  adapting  means 
to  ends — above  all,  in  dealing  with  persons — there 
is  in  woman  a kind  of  practical  sense,  an  insight 
into  character,  a fertility  of  resource,  which  make 
her  invaluable  to  man  as  companion  and  friend. 
In  man  there  is,  I think,  an  instinctive  recog- 
nition of  this  peculiar  wisdom,  and  a disposition 
to  lean  upon  Avoman  as  his  counselor  which  is  as 


104 


WOMANHOOD. 


natural  as  to  woman  the  disposition  to  lean  upon 
man  as  her  defender ; and  where  the  native  woman’s 
wit  is  strengthened  by  accurate  knowledge  and 
guided  by  lofty  principle,  it  is  a dependence  of 
which  he  seldom  has  reason  to  repent. 

Lastly,  woman  influences  man  through  sympathy, 
animating  him  to  strenuous  effort,  calling  forth  his 
latent  power  and  energy,  by  her  approbation  and 
praise  and  supporting  him  under  disappointment 
and  defeat  by  her  steadfast  courage.  There  are 
probably  very  few  men  who  are  able  to  make  the 
most  of  themselves,  to  bring  out  the  best  that  is  iu 
them,  without  a woman’s  encouragement.  The  old 
chivalry  but  expressed  a law  of  human  nature  when 
it  assigned  to  woman’s  hand  the  crowning  of  tlie 
victors  in  the  tournament.  On  the  battle-fields  of 
life  as  on  the  fields  of  knightly  contest  the  comba- 
tants are  animated  and  sustained  by  the  conscious- 
ness of  woman’s  gaze,  the  assurance  of  woman’s 
sympathy,  the  hope  of  woman’s  approving  smile. 
The  world  will  never  know  how  large  a debt  it 
owes  for  its  best  literature  and  its  scientific  lore  to 
such  sisters  as  Dorothy  Wordsworth  and  Caroline 
Herschel.  We  have  just  received  the  testimony  of 
Mr,  Julian  Hawthorne  that  his  father  never  could 


INFLUENCE. 


105 


have  done  his  work  without  the  help  thus  derived 
from  his  wife’s  sympathy  and  encouragement. 
Even  though  she  be  an  idealized  and  far-ofP  vision 
like  Dante’s  Beatrice,  still  the  poet  sings  his  song 
that  he  may  lay  his  laurels  at  her  feet. 

In  these  ways,  then — by  example,  by  counsel 
and  by  sympathy — it  is  in  your  power  to  put  forth 
a redeeming  influence  by  which  the  men  around 
you  shall  be  saved  from  sin,  an  inspiring  influence 
by  which  they  shall  be  roused  to  their  highest  pos- 
sibilities of  achievement,  an  elevating  influence  by 
which  society  shall  be  lifted  from  its  heartlessness 
and  worldliuess  to  the  high  plane  of  Cliristian  sin- 
cerity and  Christian  love. 

It  is  within  your  power,  I say.  If  you  fail  so 
to  use  your  power,  what  then?  Then  you  will  fail, 
not  negatively,  but  positively — so  fail  as  to  drag 
down  those  whom  you  should  have  lifted  up.  For, 
mark  it  well,  influence  belongs  to  you  simply  as 
women.  Though  the  direction  of  your  influence 
depends  upon  character,  the  fact  of  influence  is 
bound  up  with  the  mysterious  power  of  sex  itself. 
That  power  is  something  you  cannot  alter.  By  no 
will  of  yours  can  you  change  its  laws.  If  you  are 


1U6 


WOMANHOOD. 


weak  or  worldly  or  wicked,  still  meo  will  follow 
you,  listen  to  you,  leau  upon  you — follow  you  to 
death  if  you  will  not  lead  them  to  life,  listen  to  you 
though  you  be  their  counselors  to  do  wickedly,  lean 
upon  you  till  the  broken  reed  has  pierced  their 
hand.  It  is  a mournful  thing  that  the  first  record 
we  have  in  Scripture  of  woman’s  influence  is  a 
record  of  its  perversion  : “ She  took  of  the  fruit 
thereof,  and  did  eat ; and  gave  also  unto  her  hus- 
band with  her,  and  he  did  eat.”  No  hint  there  of 
beguiling  words  such  as  the  serpent  had  need  of. 
Enough  that  she  gave.  Her  husband  took  and  did 
eat.  And  from  that  day  to  this,  for  good  or  for 
evil,  man  has  followed  woman’s  lead,  and  is  follow- 
ing it  still.  As  of  old  witli  the  forbidden  fruit,  so 
to-day  with  the  wine-cup  : if  your  hand  offers  it, 
he  will  take  it.  Not  always  : here  and  there  a Jo- 
seph may  resist  the  temptress,  a Job  refuse  at  his 
wife’s  instance  to  curse  God  and  die ; but,  though 
a woman  become  a Delilah,  a Jezebel  or  a Herodias, 
she  will  not  want  for  men  who  will  put  their 
strength,  their  kingdom,  their  conscience,  into  her 
keeping. 

I have  little  fear  that  any  of  you  will  become 
such,  but  I do  fear  lest  you  should  be  content  with 


INFLUENCE. 


107 


something  less  than  true  womanhood,  I do  fear  lest 
you  should  become  worldly  or  frivolous  or  self-in- 
dulgent or  vain,  and  in  so  doing  should  mould  the 
men  about  you  to  your  own  likeness  and  infuse  into 
the  society  about  you  your  own  spirit.  For,  re- 
member, as  I have  already  reminded  you,  if  you 
do  this  you  will  be  weights  to  hold  down  and  drag 
back  those  who  fain  would  rise  to  better  things. 
Here  and  there  a man  may  be  found — perhaps  one 
in  a hundred — who  can  stand  up  against  the  influ- 
ence- of  a weak,  characterless,  self-indulgent  or 
complaining  wife,  and  become,  in  spite  of  her,  the 
man  God  means  him  to  be,  but  I believe  it  would 
be  easier  to  find  men  who  would  go  to  the  stake. 
When  the  husband  of  Vittoria  Colonna  was  offered 
the  crown  of  Naples  as  an  inducement  to  join  the 
league  against  his  sovereign,  Charles  V.,  she  bade 
him  spurn  the  offer,  and  he  did.  Suppose  she  had 
counseled  otherwise,  suppose  that,  dazzled  by  the 
glitter  of  royalty,  she  had  entreated  and  cajoled 
him  to  make  her  a queen,  would  he  then  have  re- 
fused the  bribe?  He  might,  but  he  would  then 
have  been  one  man  among  a thousand.  That  is 
what  is  going  on  to-day  in  hundreds  of  homes  in 
this  very  city.  Women  with  their  hearts  set  upon 


108 


WOMANHOOD. 


show,  upon  glitter,  upon  dress,  upon  local  distinc- 
tion or  watering-place  notoriety,  upon  surpassing 
some  rival,  upon  climbing  a round  or  two  more 
of  the  social  ladder,  upon  more  of  the  luxuries  and 
splendors  of  wealth,  are  leading  their  husbands 
on,  it  may  be  unconsciously,  to  a treason  just  as 
base,  if  less  open  and  conspicuous,  inducing  them 
to  abandon  their  integrity,  to  prove  false  to  their 
ideals,  to  betray  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  for  the 
sake  of  these  paltry  baubles. 

And  what  the  influence  of  a wife  is  upon  her 
husband,  that,  in  a less  degree,  is  the  influence  of 
every  woman  upon  society  at  large.  The  great 
curse  of  society  to-day  is  its  materialism,  its  pride 
of  wealth,  its  devotion  to  luxury;  and  the  power  of 
that  evil  to  maintain  its  hold  lies  in  the  influence 
of  woman.  Kot  till  she  ceases  to  worship  the  god 
of  this  world,  to  bow  at  the  shrine  of  fashion,  to 
court  the  rich,  to  patronize  the  poor  and  to  struggle 
for  position,  and  points  the  way  to  nobler  staudai’ds 
and  higher  ideals,  shaming  by  her  unworldliuess 
the  sordidness  of  men  and  awaking  their  higher 
aspirations  by  her  example,  will  this  blight  be  re- 
moved and  human  society  become  a true  though 
dim  reflection  of  the  intercouise  of  heaven. 


INFLUENCE. 


109 


Young  women,  are  you  doing  anything  to  bring 
this  brighter  day?  or  are  you  by  your  own  low 
aims  aud  frivolous  characters  helping  to  rivet  closer 
the  slavisli  chains  upon  this  Mammon-worshiping 
generation  ? 

To  ask  this  question  is  to  ask  whether  you  are 
winning  and  revealing  a true  womanhood.  For — 
let  me  repeat  it  again — though  you  have  influence 
simply  as  women,  you  can  have  a right,  a saving, 
influence  only  as  you  are  true  women.  Failing 
that,  your  example  sets  before  men  a false  standard, 
your  woman’s  wit  degenerates  to  a low,  selfish  cun- 
ning, your  sympathy  is  only  with  men’s  baser  na- 
ture and  your  encouragement  only  for  their  lower 
aims.  There  is  no  inspiring,  redeeming,  uplifting 
power  in  mere  feminine  softness  and  amiability, 
none  in  the  charms  of  beauty  or  adornment,  none 
in  gifts  or  culture,  but  only  and  always  in  high, 
strong,  holy  womanhood.  Where  that  is,  nothing 
can  hide,  nothing  can  bound,  its  influence.  A 
young  woman  may  be  as  plain,  as  unlettered,  as 
unversed  in  the  usages  of  jjolite  society,  as  Jeanie 
Deans ; but  if  she  be  as  true  and  strong  a woman, 
she  will  make  her  influence  tell  on  all  around  her, 
reaching  up  to  queens  u])on  tlie  throne  to  move  and 


no 


WOMANHOOD. 


soften,  and  down  to  fallen  humanity  in  the  jjrison- 
cell  to  rescue  and  reclaim. 

And  that  womanhood  is  attained  in  Christ.  If 
you  would  prove  to  the  uttermost  the  power  of 
woman’s  influence  and  bring  to  the  world  in  its 
fullness  the  helpfulness  for  wliich  God  placed  you 
in  it,  open  your  hearts  to  that  divine  Guest ; let 
him  abide  there ; let  him  clothe  you  with  the  orna- 
ment of  a meek  and  quiet  spirit ; let  him  enrich 
you  with  the  wisdom,  pure,  peaceable,  gentle  and 
easy  to  be  entreated,  which  is  from  above ; let  him 
impart  to  you  his  strong  courage  and  his  deep  and 
tender  sympathy ; and  then  take  tlie  place  he  gives 
you,  assured  that  in  no  place  can  such  a womanliood 
be  thrown  away,  but  that,  wherever  you  may  be — 
in  cottage  or  in  hall,  in  the  centre  of  the  happy  do- 
mestic circle  or  in  the  lonely  walks  of  solitary  life, 
in  the  midst  of  the  refined  and  courtly  company,  at 
the  bedside  of  the  sick,  in  the  hovel  of  the  poor,  in 
the  cell  of  the  prisoner  or  in  the  house  of  God — 
men  will  be  the  better  for  your  presence,  the  wiser 
for  your  counsel,  and  the  stronger  for  your  sympa- 
thy, the  world  the  brighter  for  your  passing  through 
it ; that  your  image  will  be  cherished  in  many  a 
heart  with  a reverence  second  only  to  that  paid  to 


INFLUENCE. 


Ill 


the  Christ  himself;  and  that  the  benediction  upon 
her  by  whom  the  world’s  redemption  came,  “ Blessed 
aid  thou  among  women,”  shall  be  yours  from  many 
a human  tongue  while  you  live,  and  yours  at  the 
last  from  His  lips  whose  benediction  shall  be  your 
heaven. 


THE  END. 


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